Ironman Aftermath
by insiga
Summary: Tony has been suffering from anxiety attacks for far longer than he had let on. Ever since the fight to be exact. He just doesn't want to face it. He needs some kind of distraction. And this would be the perfect one. Scarlet needs to find her father, if she doesn't want to get Caught by Them. Even though she despises Tony she has to admit that she needs his help.
1. Chapter 1

The wind was blowing in a soft breeze not making a noise as the curtains sweep to the side. The crater deep hole in the floor was ignored and the black soot on the walls was faded. The city seemed eerily quiet from the top of the tower. Any noise seemed to be drowned out by the distance. There was no sound of traffic or sounds of fighting or bartering coming from the streets below. Tony Stark stares out the broken windows of the building. While the other members of the team are spread to their own spots thinking about the battle that had just been fought. The debriefing at the helicarrier was already done but Tony just sat as his thoughts looped back and forth. While most can let go of the extreme events that had taken place in the previous weeks, as they are used to the normal being exceeded, Tony couldn't get it through his head.

The Chitauri where aliens with thick necks and Grey skin. Their mouths seemed to unhinge like a snakes to reveal pointed teeth that looked as if they were rotting away. Where a nose would be seemed as if it was flattened revealing curves holes. But the thing that caught Tony's attention the most was the glowing state of their green eyes. If their bodies themselves didn't scream inhuman to him than their eyes could be the thing that identified them as such. How could something be so different? Their energy levels seemed to never run out and the line of soldiers never ceased. It all seemed as if the fight would close in on them and never let them win.

It had all seemed hopeless at that one moment. Then Tony heard about the missile heading straight for the portal. For a moment Tony didn't know what to do. He didn't know. He didn't know anything anymore. About the Chitauri, about how the hell the missile was even launched from the plane to destroy the hundreds of lives they were trying to save.

Maybe the Chitauri were just some kind of experiment. To test the human ability of being able to survive in space. Maybe that's how they evolved. Maybe they were human. No. Impossible. Tony was getting sick of his far-fetched theories. Thor didn't have any answers. No one did. Tony chuckled lamely at that thought. He was looking to Thor for an explanation. Hoping he would tell him the truth about the army. He was after all an Asgardian. How would there be so many? Who was trying to fight with them? Who was Loki playing for?

But he had to do something. He couldn't let the rocket reach its target. Without realising it he had taken the missile in his hands already. Explaining his choice to the Captain. His heart stopped as his chest scraped the building while pushing the rocket to the sky. He couldn't tell why their was ringing for a second but then he saw Pepper. He was calling her. Her smile brought some kind of unexplained pain to his chest. No, it was the portal, he had passed through. His breathing stopped, he could only stare at the sight before him while his chest constricted, stabbing him. At that moment he couldn't help but think of what Cap' had said before. "_I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you." Steve said stepping closer to Tony, challenging him. Without a flicker of emotion Tony had returned the fire._

"_I think that I would just cut the wire."_

Tony shook his head he couldn't think of it anymore. He spined the glass of scotch resting on the arm of the red leather of the couch. The glass contained the liquor that had been poured at the beginning of this whole mess, the taste had now long since seemed to fade, now being replaced by a duller flavor. Tony watched as the brown contents swished around in the glass. Tony heard, once again his phone start to ring from where it sat on the table.

"It's Miss. Potts again sir. I would advise you to answer the call. She hasn't heard from you yet. This isn't her first time calling." Jarvis's voice spoke out. The eighth time actually. Tony stares back at the phone blankly as the annoying ringing continued. It chimed and chimed over and over until finally the room fell to silence as the call was sent to voicemail. Tony leant forward slowly and placed his elbows on his knees resting them there as his thoughts tore away from the battle that had ended.

What could he say to Pepper? He doubted that she would let him off without explaining what had happened. He couldn't do that again. Though Tony hides his emotions very well you wouldn't be able to miss the slight twitching in his face as he tries to explain something very complex to himself or to someone else. It's almost too easy to tell when he is flustered over an unsolved problem.

No.

She couldn't know how much this bothered him. Couldn't know that he wasn't able to solve a problem for himself. It wouldn't be right. Tony Stark, couldn't solve a problem? Obsured. Imaginary. Impossible.

Well that's what this all is, isn't it? Impossible.

Tony was broken from his thoughts as he turned to the TV that was quietly playing the reports on the attacks. '_Despite the devastation, what has been confirmed as an extraterrestrial attack. The extraordinary group known as the Avengers has been many a cause...' 'Nah it's just good to know they're out there you know? Someone watching over us.' 'And then this guys goes Pew Pew and then this car goes Boosh, and then this green guy goes AHHHH!' 'I don't exactly feel safe with those things out there. It just seems like there's a lot they're not telling us.' 'Superheros in New York, give me a break.' 'These so called heros have to be held responsible to the destruction done to the city.'_ Tony clutches the glass in his hand and closes his eyes in anger. '_This was their fight where are they now?'_

Tony threw the glass out the already broken window and watched as it shattered on the concrete side of the large balcony, the ruined pieces fell to the ground countless feet below. '_Some questions are now being asked about the Avengers themselves. Their sudden appearance and equally sudden disappearance...' 'What that this is all somehow their fault?' _A girls timid voice filled the room causing Tony to turn to the screen. The girl looked flustered as she was looking around as if the right words would just pop out right in front of her. Her hair was falling out of a bun and she was covered in grime and that was Tony's hint that she had been in the warzone as the fight went on. '_Captain America saved my life. Wherever he is and wherever any of them are, I would just, I would wanna say thank you.'_

"Mute." Tony said in a scratchy voice. He turned away from the screen and slowly walked out towards the balcony. Where the large letters that once spelled STARK were, now only the A remained, to Tony this was very ironic. He avoided the broken glass of the railing and sighed quietly as he looked out over the railing. He saw workers and volunteers in safety suits picking up the fallen Chitauri bodies only making his mind once again drift to the battle.

When the Chitauri first came out of the portal there was no time for surprise or shock it was just a fighting moment. But when the giant eel like Chitauri came out of the portal Tony was so overcome by shock that, hadn't he been paying attention, he would have run into a building. How had the other Avengers seemed so laid back about this? Had they seen other things this weird? Was Tony the only one bothered by this?

Somehow Tony couldn't doubt the fact that he was probably the only one overthinking this right now. But how couldn't he? He was Tony Stark, a genius. He invented a suit that no one has ever copied before except for Ivan Vanko, but he's gone now. What else could happen that can top this? How in the world can he solve this?

If there was a God could he explain what was happening? Tony doubted he could. But with his thoughts his brain couldn't get past the feeling of being swallowed by that monster. A flying worm like creature who was the size of a building and Tony plunged down it's throat. His armor turned at odd angles, pushing against the force of the jets. The missiles had begun to fire but Tony wasn't seeing a way out. His mind began to panic inside the belly of the beast and he was close to clawing at the sides to get out. But finally the middle of the creature had exploded and Tony went flying into a bus stop where he skidded hitting a car. Tony shook his head and looked down at the scenery but what he saw made his eyes widen. He was covered in the monster slime and gore, blood soaked into his shirt and the stink penetrated his nose. He backed away from the glass edge and rubbed at the slime on him but it wouldn't come off. His breathing became frantic and pained as his arms and chest hurt from all the scratching. But he blinked, and it was gone. There was nothing there. His skin was red from the force used against it but it wasn't covered in and kind of substance.

Tony looked across the skyline where he saw the sun setting in the distance. He shook his head and focused his attention on a point on the balcony, where Loki's scepter once laid, the thing that finally ended it all. The thing that drove Barten to turn against himself, the thing that took Coulson's life. It was gone now. S.H.I.E.L.D. took it but then again they would. For their power hungry greed to forge weapons of mass destruction. When will it be that something like this is a normal thing? Thor had said that by building these things it proves that Earth is ready for a higher form of war. War, that is what he said. When will it be that you could expect an attack any day from distant neighbors? Not just worrying about terrorists or world peace but aliens. Coulson didn't die for that. Not to give the world more misery. Tony just couldn't believe that.

He was a reliable person. Trusted. A friend. Tony seemed a bit short on those lately. He needed to contact Rhode. Maybe he can help him with this. Or maybe it will be like Afghanistan all over again with Rhode checking up on him constantly. He didn't want that he didn't want pity. Tony looked up to the sky. He could almost see where that portal had opened, could almost imagine plummeting to the ground after being thrown by Loki. Almost. He turned and went back inside the house where he ordered Jarvis to schedule some builders to come and fix the building.

"But, Jarvis." Tony paused, looking back out at the balcony. "Leave the A." No one needed to know just how much all this bothered him he decided. It would just bring more commotion and all Tony needed now was calm. It was just this simple and the problem would be gone like that. It didn't need to be kept in his head constantly. All he needed was a distraction. Yeah. A distraction sounded good. With that Tony picked up the phone and dialed Pepper's number.

"Tony?" He heard her answer right away. Tony closed his eyes and breathed out slowly, smiling at the sound of her voice.

"How do you feel about dinner tonight?" He asked. A distraction sounded perfect.

Hi! This is my first story so I hope you like it. First off I would really appreciate some review on how I am doing. I have never done any fanfiction before so I am relatively new to this, but I do read it all the time but I don't think that's the same. Anyways to further explain the story.

This story is about a girl who is trying to find her father after her mother dies in the Navy and she is trying to get some help finding. him. Tony Stark owes her family a favor so she plans on calling it in. Tony has been suffering from major panic attacks due to the battle of Manhattan and he finds that helping her would be a perfect distraction from all of his thoughts about the attack and all the looks from his teammate's.

While all of this is going down the Avengers take on the come back of an old foe of Tony's and he only gets more stress from that.

I have the entire story mostly planned out and one of the reasons it might take me a bit to get a new chapter up is to work out the wrinkles in the story where something doesn't add up quite right and I am still working on that. Otherwise I know how it ends and what happens in the story I'm just having a problem expressing it. So sorry in advance but I hope to keep the story on track.

But in the meantime enjoy and thank you for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The room was filled with a blue glow from the computer screen and small clicking noises and a printer made the only sounds as Scarlet typed away. There were multiple tabs open on the desktop in front of her. The glow of the screen was the only thing to be seen as Scarlet printed out information and sticks it into a manila envelope with a tie to close it. The folder was getting fatter as she added more papers to it.

The room was miniscule and painted an off-white color. There was only a desk with a desktop on it in the room. To the side of the desk was a window that has metal blinds blocking the sunlight from streaming into the room. It was midday and the air-conditioning was doing little to nothing to help Scarlet cool down from the Arizona sun. Through the shades she could see an artificial lake in the backyard. The neighbors were out with their grandchildren again. they had invested in getting a paddle boat shaped like a duck so the grandchildren would actually want to go out on the lake. She could hear their laughter as the children paddled and the grandparents steared.

Looking away from the window Scarlet examined her folder. Wondering if she had enough information she picked up her phone to check the time but when she went to unlock her phone it started ringing. A generic pop song filled the silent room. The number was one that was not recognized by her phone and Scarlet tenced. Her heart started racing as the ringing continued

She wondered if she should answer it. After the conversation she had with her mother when she was little she knew this was going to happen at some point but she never thought she would be as ill prepared as this. If she answered it what would happen. She felt fear gather in her and she set the phone on the table. Even if she did answer the phone she doubted if she could even utter a word. A few more seconds passed and the phone stopped ringing.

Scarlet looked at the phone once more before shutting down the computer. She grabbed her envelope and left the phone on the desk. She grabbed a green vintage army bag from her room and went into her closet.

It was time to go.

Scarlet packed the bag with clothes and all the money that was in the hidden cookie jar she found on top of the fridge. She then walked towards the entrance of the home. When she was passing through the living room she saw Margaret sleeping on the couch. Margaret was her nanny while her mom was off on tour. The old woman looked exhausted from her age. The wrinkles on her face seemed more accentuated. Margaret had been watching over Scarlet for about three years now. Ever since her mom lost her job and had to join the army in order to support them.

The nanny had grown to be something like family to Scarlet and she felt a deep sense of guilt for what she was about to do. Scarlet wanted nothing more than to stay here and talk with Margaret like they always did. Laugh at each others witty comments and try to beat each other in a game of rummy.

Shaking the thoughts from her head, Scarlet convinced herself that she would see her again and the moments between them would not be lost. Though she would be leaving without telling anyone, Scarlet was sure she would be forgiven for her actions and be welcomed back to the rummy table with open arms. She wouldn't be gone forever she would be back.

Scarlet started for the door and snatches Margaret's keys from the key rack and slipped out the door before the nanny would wake up and realize she was gone. She unlocked the nanny's car and slipped into the seat. Setting the folder down next to her she headed to the next place on her agenda.

Driving the car down the street she put on her sunglasses to block her eyes and the sun and put on her baseball cap from her first time on the school's softball team. She remembered when she had hit her first home run that year. The entire team came out of the dugout and did the craziest dancing Scarlet had ever seen. Later they all headed to the ice cream parlor to celebrate the win and hit. Smiling at her reminisce, Scarlet looked at the familiar scenery from where she grew up. She was going to miss this place but in order to take control of what was going on she couldn't stay. She needed to get away from whatever her mother warned her about from an early age.

She stopped at the bank and took money out of hers and her mother's account. Scarlets heart was pounding. She could tell some of the bankers were suspicious of this. She could only hope they wouldn't alert Margaret to this. But in the end Scarlet walked out with the money and was on her way in a snap. She walked out of the bank with a large sum of money and a mini heart failure.

The first thing she did when she got into the car was check to make sure she had all her bases covered. Once she was sure she had everything she started her drive to the local car shop.

The building was made of cinderblocks and had large metal garage doors. The majority of the building was spray painted wild colors and had the words Chop Shop Spray painted over the length of the two garage doors. When scarlet got out of the car the sun had started its descent from the sky. She walked through the front door of the shop and walked through the welcoming area to the auto repair area where you could hear the sound of heavy machinery take over the large area as Scarlet walked further into the back of the shop. With her bag over her shoulder and the envelope stuffed inside.

When she reached the source of the noise she saw a large man with a welding stick in his hands.

The man she was looking at had arms covered in tattoo's and his face had smudged oil on it. He was wearing a welding vest over the top of his wife beater and tattered jeans His hands had heavy gloves on them, he had welding goggles on and he was bent over the fender of a 1960's Beetle. When he started working with the welder again blue sparks emanated from the tip of the rod.

"Marcus." Scarlet yelled at the man and he stopped and turned towards her. As soon as he saw her he gave her a big grin showing of his slightly yellow teeth under his greying mustache. The dark goggles were still on his face as he got up from the stool, they made him look a bit silly as he grinned like that.

"Scarlet!" He walked over to her and brought her into a hug. "Why is my little flower child down here? Shouldn't you be in school?" Scarlet returned the hug tightly knowing this would be last time she saw him for a while.

Marcus was the owner of the car shop here and was as close to a fatherly figure she ever had in her life. When her mother had to take in her car to get fixed, Marcus showed Scarlet how to fix it and he noted how she had taken an interest in engineering. From there Scarlet had some kind of apprenticeship with Marcus, he noticed how she seemed to excel in it. Her mother never knew that she was helping Marcus at the shop but Scarlet prefered it that way.

Her mother never really had free time when she was home from her tours in the Navy, when she was home she was working odd hours at a local diner. So Scarlet let her have her rest when she was home, but the rare times when Jane, Scarlet's mother, wouldn't be working they would spend most of the day together. Even though the time they spent together was limited they were closely knitted together and Scarlet lover her.

Though she had Margaret and her mother there was still a fatherly figure missing from her life and letting go of Marcus was like letting go of the only stable ground she had left. Like giving up the man she had considered to be like a father to her. She didn't want to go but she had to, she had been warned far too many times about what would happen if she didn't.

"I need to trade in this car for a new ride, Marcus." Scarlet said still hugging him. Marcus stiffens and pushes her back gently so he can look at her face. The confusion was evident on his face as she looked up to him. She dug the keys out from her pocket and handed them to Marcus. He took them hesitantly.

"What are you talking about Flowerchild? You only have your permit. You shouldn't have even drove here. Is Margaret with you?" Marcus look out the window and see Margaret's car in the lot. Not seeing the nanny out by the car he looked back to the girl with a bewildered look on his face. "What's wrong?"

"Marcus, I need to leave before they come. I need to find my dad." Scarlet says with anxiety on her face. Just thinking about what might happen made Scarlet's legs feel like jelly.

"No you don't. Who's looking for you baby girl?" He asks kneeling on one knee to be level with her. "Why didn't you go to your mother for this. She would take care of it. You know she could." Scarlet looks at Marcus with sad eyes.

"She's dead Marcus. She was skyping me while they were heading back from their tour. There was an explosion and... Oh God. She's gone Marcus." Tears had formed in Scarlet eyes and she hugged him once again burying her head in the welding vest Marcus shook his head with wide eyes. Scarlet couldn't help but recall the memory of when she was talking with her mother over a sketchy skype video. They had been talking about her tour when the side of the wall blasted open and scarlet saw debris start flying before the screen froze. The fear on her mother's face was something that Scarlet would never forget. "Marcus I told you what would happen if she died! I need to leave before they find me."

Marcus stares into her pleading eyes and then looks back at the car in the parking lot. Sighing he looks down at the ground. He stepped back from her and dragged a hand down his face and tugged on his long beard.

"May God forgive me." He whispers and then looks back at Scarlet. "Fine but I need to give you something fast. Did your mother ever teach you how to drive a stick shift?"

"When would she have time?" Scarlet asked sniffing and followed Marcus as he walked further back into the shop. She could hear Marcus mumbling something like a prayer as he opened a door that lead into the private section of the shop. Not even Scarlet was allowed back here. Quickly she wiped away the tears in her eyes and followed him in.

"Of course." He picks up keys and tosses them to Scarlet. "I only have one automatic and it's fast okay. You need to be careful, buckle up and I swear if you go any faster than 80 I'll skin you alive next time I see you." Scarlet barely caught them, as she was distracted by the line of cars that were before her. There were chevy convertibles, ferrari roadsters and sports cars, mustangs, t-tops and Scarlet thought she even saw a Jaguar. Marcus was gesturing to a 1969 Corvette Stingray, Scarlets favorite car. She looks up to him. Her eyes sting and she has to hold back her tears so that she wouldn't breakdown and change her mind about what she must do.

"Marcus this is too much. I can't take this." Marcus waved his hand to dismiss what she said.

"Consider it an early birthday present. I was going to give it to you on your 16th knowing how much you love that god darn car, seeing as you would never shut up about it." Shaking her head at this she hugged Marcus once again.

After a moment she felt Marcus wrap his arms around her. She knew he didn't approve of what she was about to do but he understood her position at the moment. They wouldn't let each others opinions get in the way right now.

They both know she might not be coming back. They just don't want to say it. Because once you say it, it becomes more real. Harder to face because you know in your heart the it is true.

One traitor tear slips from Scarlet's eye and she steps back and wipes it away quickly. Marcus looks to the ceiling swallowing the tears that threatened to spill.

"Don't forget to call Baby girl. I want to know all the details of your escape." He says half-jokingly. He looks back to her and Scarlet knew that he was trying to lighten the situation. For that she was thankful and she gave him a nod.

"I won't. Bye Uncle M." She said calling him by his old nickname, she had stopped using it after she realized how childish it was. Though, Marcus let a single tear fall down his cheek. Scarlet got in the car and pulled out of the garage and onto the street where she heard Marcus say softly.

"Bye my Flowerchild."

She looked at him once more. His expression seemed to suggest as if he was been torn from stopping her and letting her go. Scarlet had to think about what she would do if she was in the same position as him. Scarlet knew that by now she would have stopped herself from driving off. For that Scarlet was extremely grateful that Marcus had not tried to stop her.

And just like that she was gone. Zooming down the road with her seatbelt on and not daring to pass the speed limit Marcus had set for her. She would always think of Marcus as something like a father to her, but right now she needed to find her real one and let the old one go.

Scarlet's real father was never mentioned or spoken of in her mother's household but every once in a great while Scarlet would express to Margaret her wonderings about who her father was. Though these wondering never made their way to her mother Scarlet could tell Jane knew that she wanted to know.

Scarlet was not a fool. She knew that she couldn't take care of herself forever without an adults help. There was no other family on her mother's side that Scarlet knew of. No cousins, Aunts, Uncles or grandparents. Scarlets only hope of someone who might actually help her out in the long run would be her father.

The file and backpack were placed next to her. If the information in that envelope was right, there was only one person who could find her father in the limited amount of time that she had, well the only one who owed her mother a favor. She pulled into a road stop after she got out of town and pulled directions to the two different places out of the envelope. First she needed to check his house in California. It was closer and safer there anyways. The Avengers were in Manhattan and that couldn't work. They were with S.H.I.E.L.D. She couldn't be associated with them, not yet.

Not until she found her father. After that everything could calm down.

Right?

Scarlet put the directions to Manhattan back in the envelope and studied the other directions. Feeling a headache come on she put the paper to the side and looked at the road to the side of her. The radio played softly in the background and she listened to it. It was somewhat lulling her into a sleep. But when the music suddenly cut off she sat up straighter.

"_Sorry for the interruption folks but we just got an AMBER Alert for Scarlet Jane Miller. She was last seen at her home in Green Valley, Arizona three hours ago. She is 15 and '5"1 with brown hair, blue eyes and was last seen wearing a Mickey Mouse Sweater with blue jeans. She is believed to be driving a Tan Chevrolet Malibu, Licence plate number is 53R-9EC. If you see anyone with this description please call 911 right away."_

Scarlet cursed and slammed her fist on the dashboard. She thought she might as least have enough time to get out of the state before they realized that she was gone. At least she didn't have to worry about being pulled over because of the car. Then again a flashy sports car might get the attention of a police officer sooner than a regular car.

She could only hope that Marcus had been able to hide the car at least. Getting the car out of park she peeled onto the road again and continued in the direction she was going only at the speed limit. Now that there was an AMBER Alert out she needed to be careful. The setting sun and the growing darkness made Scarlet take off the sunglasses.

When she saw a gas station ahead she stopped and pulled up next to the pump and filled the tank. Walking inside the gas station with some of her bills in her pocket and her bag over her shoulder, she searched the aisles for something and when she found it she smiled and snatched it from the counter. In order not to seem suspicious she grabbed a few other things. Walking up to the counter she saw a kid who was flipping through a random catalog that was on the counter. When she placed her things down he sighed and straightened.

"Any gas?" He asked and started to scan the items.

"Pump 3." Scarlet responded quietly and the kid nodded. As he rung up her items she noticed a piece of paper with a picture of her taped to the back of the register. Gulping silently Scarlet regretted getting so many items as she felt as if the cameras could see past her baseball cap. That they would somehow alert people to whom she was.

"That will be $46.78." The kid said as he bagged the items, Scarlet pulled out a fifty and handed it to him.

"Keep the change." She said and the kid nodded. "Is there a bathroom here?" She asked. For the first time the kid looked up at her and for a second Scarlet thought her recognized her from the sign on the register. But the kid didn't say anything and answered her question.

"Yeah." The kid said. "It's around back."

"Thanks." Scarlet walked out of the station and got into her car. She moved the car to the back of the station and walked to the bathroom. Once she was in she locked the door behind her and picked out some of the things she bought. There was a bandana, hair dye, random make-up and a few bags of junk food. Placing the dye and the bandana on the sink she threw the rest of the stuff to the side. She opened her bag and took out a fresh change of clothes. Digging in the bag more she found a small contact case which she took out and placed next to the other stuff.

In the case were green contacts. Scarlet thanked her lucky stars that a friend from her last year of softball had made her order these contacts for Halloween. She only wore them once before and she found that they were pretty realistic. Scarlet put them in and checked the mirror to make sure they were on seeing that they looked right Scarlet ripped open the box for the dye.

She put the dye in her hair carefully and put her head under the blow dryer to speed up the process. After the time for the dye was up she washed her hair out in the sink and dried it out with the shirt that she was wearing.

She changed into a loose green tank-top and threw a fur lined jacket over it. She put black jeggings on and put on a pair of heels that made her seem higher. This was the way it was going to have to be for a while. Scarlet used some of the makeup she had just bought also and used it to change her complexion.

Looking in the mirror Scarlet saw that she looked nothing like herself. Her brown hair that she normally had pulled back in a bun or ponytail was framing her face. Her complexion looked different from the clown contouring that she did with the make-up. Her normally blue eyes were now a green but some of the original blue could be seen through the contacts.

Scarlet packed all her old clothes back into her bag and tied a bandanna around her head.

Good enough.

Now it was time to get some answers. Even of they were from Anthony Stark.

Comment! Review! Plz! ;)


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The smell of blood was something that couldn't only be described by the word disgusting. It wasn't something that was supposed to make a promanent smell anywhere. But it was all Tony could smell as he was dragged back to the room that he had grown to despise with all of his being. The medical instruments were still covered in his own blood from when he had first arrived.

There was a sack covering his head when he was in this room or whenever he left the workshop where he was supposed to be working. It never scared him as much as it should have, not until they came into this room. It was when he was here that he so desperately wished for his sight. Just so he could prepare himself for the pain that was to come.

The hot coals burned his flesh and the smell of it became so prominent that Tony just wanted to roll over and puke out the remnants of his stomach. Words were screamed at him while they cut, burned and drowned him. Only some he could understand.

Give us the Jericho! Why is it taking so long? What are you making? Jericho. Jericho? Jericho!

Blood was the only thing he could notice when they tore the bag off his head in the end, only to make sure he was still alive. There was blood on the floor the walls but Tony could see the table behind them. It was the one that he was put down on as they dug shrapnel from his chest. His own screams echoed through his mind as he stared at the table. Soon he had stopped hearing the shouting voices and he was somewhere else.

He was in the sky. The wind was howling in his ears, it was too loud. This wasn't right. He was flying forward but the sand dunes where coming at him just as fast, as if the earth was angry someone had managed to cheat it for even a second. The silver suit shot like a rocket down to the ground and he could feel the pain of the impact all over again, except this time he didn't get up. After everything he didn't have the strength to get up. Sand blew up in his face but Tony couldn't care.

He was being consumed by pain from each part of his body. It was like the pain from the impact refused to go away and would stay until Tony got up. But he couldn't his body refused to move anymore and his efforts were getting more and more desperate.

Then They were there in front of him dragging him back to the cave, past Yensin and threw him back into the room but this time to kill him. But their efforts were wasted, had they left him there in the desert Tony would have watched the light in his chest flicker out, just as he was doing now, stuck in the room with an onslaught of weapons pointed right at him.

Tony woke with a start his breathing coming out in fast gasps. His hand covered the reactor in his chest protectively. He looked around him wildly for any sign of Them, when he didn't see any threat he relaxed but only a bit. Next to him Pepper slept with her hand folded under the pillow her face blank of emotion as she rested. Tony was glad his sudden waking hadn't aroused her from her sleep. Again the dreams had haunted his sleep. The images of the battle would not leave him alone. He was beginning to feel pathetic. Was he really this weak that these things chase him even in his dreams? Was this something that even his mind couldn't accept, even grasp?

The memory of the battle was only the beginning though. It was as if the battle had just unraveled Tony altogether. It had picked at the last thread holding Tony's sanity together and now everything came back in an immense rally. Now Tony was reliving his days in Afghanistan and the fear he felt every time he cheated death in battles. He would wake covered in sweat and nothing could sway his mind to relax enough to start sleeping once again. Sometimes his dreams were not involved in the obvious torture his own mind was inflicting upon itself. It could just be a mention of the light in his chest or the sly joke about the Chitauri warriors that would send Tony into his own personal state of panic.

He was doing a great job at hiding it from others though. Or he thought so. He was his usual cocky self around everyone but alone his facade broke open. Just thinking about it was enough to send his panic into new heights. When his mind wandered too far he would escape to his shop, just like he was now.

Tony slipped out of the bed with ease as he had been doing for a time now. Leaving Pepper in the room alone he walked out of the room and down the stone steps in his pajamas, his bare feet padding on the floor. Walking into the shop he sees the tools laying around from the last project that he had completed. He sees the robot in the corner sweeping up dirt and dust that wasn't there.

"Hey Dummy?" He said and the robot slowly turned to him with the broom facing straight out and almost knocking over some dumbbells. "Whats all this?" He says gesturing to all the tools laying out on top of the table. The robot in turn swivels to look. "Clean it up, Dummy." Tony says with a small smirk to his face. The slow reactions and cluelessness of the robot always seemed to amuse him. Slowly the robot dropped the broom to the floor and slowly came over to the littered table. Tony scoffed and rolled his eyes, he walked to the middle of the room where the screens surrounded one side of the black swivel chair around it, sitting in it he twirled around and stared at the ceiling.

"What now?" Tony said aloud to no one in particular. He turned his head to watch the robot pick up all the tools laying around. It would be so much easier if they put themselves away, Tony thought. And just like that Tony's brain was whirring and getting started on a new project. Turning to the screen he pulled up a draft picture of an iron suit.

The black and yellow suit before him was only half finished as it was missing a leg and had mechanical parts hanging from its hip. There was a small whooshing sound as Tony worked on the leg with a micro welder. The parts and joints in front of him began to swim in front of his face and he found that focusing was becoming a troubling task.

His eyes started to shut as sleep threatened to take over. His hand drifted from the metal as the welder began to burn through his gloves, effectively waking him from his light sleep.

"Ahhh!" Tony gave out the short yell as his tore off the glove and brought his burning finger to his lips and sucked on it. He hissed in pain and took the finger away from his mouth and then looked to see his skin turning an angry red. He grudgingly walked over to the sink in the corner of the workshop and ran his finger under cold water. Thankfully the burn wasn't terrible, thanks to the gloves.

He looked up to see the Ironman painting above him and he smiled at the memory of when he put it up. Pepper was so mad at him and that and anger was only edging him on to push it more.

He sighed and turned off the water. Wiping his hands off carefully, he turned back to the workshop and leaned against the countertop. He saw that the dummy had gone back to sweeping a clean floor and gave up the task of cleaning countertops.

Tony shook his head and pushed off the counter. He turned off the welder, finding that one burn was enough for one night. He started to pick up the papers and tools scattered around the shop. As he was putting away a wrench the size of a hubcap his watch beeped and he blinked in surprise.

It was five in the morning. He needed to get back to bed before Pepper noticed he was missing. He sighed once again and closed the tool box.

When he got back to the room Tony crawled back into bed with her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and brought her close to him, as if she could keep away the bad dreams that were to come. But it seemed as if terror wasn't seeking him out this time because when he finally found rest he dreamed of nothing.

It seemed as if it was only a minute that had passed until he was shaken awake by Pepper who was smiling down at him.

"Time to get up, Tony." She said leaning over him. Tony gave her his trademark smirk and pulled her down to him.

"Or we could just stay in bed all day, get some popcorn, watch a few scary movies." Tony said as Pepper tucked her head into the crook of his neck. She smiled. Tony's personality alone was enough to drive most of the Avengers mad but she had found it oddly soothing to hear his witty comebacks and sly comments.

"As tempting as that sounds. You have a meeting. One that you can't miss." Tony frowned at this. Tony hadn't attended a meeting in months and he didn't feel as if he was required to after Pepper became CEO. Of course there was some meeting she wanted to have him present for just to get the negotiating side intimidated, but Tony had tried to avoid those more now after manhattan, that had not gone unnoticed by Pepper. Seeing Tony's confused face she smiled more. " Your meeting with the team and S.H.I.E.L.D. remember?" She said sitting up.

Tony groaned and rolled over, throwing a pillow over his head. He was more than reluctant to get out of bed for those people. If they couldn't enjoy even the tiniest part of his jokes then why is he obligated to bless them with his presence?

"Come on you have to leave today. The meeting is early tomorrow and it's in Manhattan." She argued. Tony didn't move but responded from under his barricade of pillows.

"I can just go in the suit and get there in an hour or two tomorrow. No harm there." Pepper rolled her eyes at Tony's antics.

"Except that the meeting is at the tower and you don't want all of them there before you, unsupervised." Pepper says rubbing Tony's bare back. Tony's head popped up and the pillow fell off the side of the bed.

"Why aren't we meeting at the Helicarrier?" Tony complained, turning to face Pepper.

"Its under maintenance. After the Hulk did some smashing and not to mention Loki, it needed a little bit of a tune up." Tony groaned and got out of bed, heading to the dresser next to the bed.

Even if the helicarrier was under repairs, why wouldn't they meet at one of SHIELD's ground bases. There are some that exist much to Fury's surprise. Tony highly doubted Fury ever took foot of the helicarrier unless necessary.

"And since when did the tower become the next available location?" Tony said pulling on a t-shirt, his chest peice glowing through it. Pepper shook her head at him and stood up as well.

"Since the building was offered to S.H.I.E.L.D. as a temporary base of operations for the Avengers." Pepper says as she walks towards Tony. Tony, himself, stiffens as he was straightening the shirt and turned to Pepper slowly.

"Since what?" He said as he closed the draw he got the shirt from

"It was a prototype and half destroyed from the attack. There was already another building in construction that was improved after the attack and as if God himself wanted it to be the Avengers building all but the A was left on the Stark sign. It was better that having to rebuild it and cheaper as well." Pepper said.

Tony hated how she made everything sound so reasonable when he didn't want it to be. In Tony's own mind the move was one that he himself would never consider. That building was one of his babies. The entire building was running on a green power source created by his own genius.

The fact that SHIELD could be abusing that right now made Tony feel like pouting. No doubt Fury was having some of his top scientist and analyst try to figure out how the machine worked. Tony nearly snorted at the thought. He could just imagine them scratching their heads while Fury was yelling at them.

"Who cares about cheaper? You gave away my building! To S.H.I.E.L.D. of all people!" Tony responds and Pepper frowns. Tony takes a small step back at her expression. It was one he had seen before. Right after the racing incident with Ivan Vanko. Her overall displeasure with the racing in general was enough to enforce that look on her face, it was one of pure evil. Tony could just imagine the cogs turning in her head on how to make Tony pay for that comment.

"It wasn't just your building." She said and it was Tony's turn to frown. "It was mine too, 12% mine." Tony sighs. He hoped that the comment was the extend of her anger but something in her eyes told Tony that he was in for it later.

"I knew I was going to pay for that comment." Pepper smiled and shook her head, unable to keep the angered look on her face.

"Get ready, Tony. You head out in an hour." Pepper walked out of the room and left Tony behind.

Why on earth does Pepper always scheduled plane rides so early in the morning? Tony couldn't help but smile as he remembered when he arrived for a plane three hours late. Rhodey had been so mad at him for making him stand there for three hours on end. Tony had only blamed the timing of the plane for being too early for his brain to commit to waking up.

The smile faded from his face quickly when he remember that, that was the trip to Afghanistan. Tony didn't think that he would have minded an early flight back if it meant skipping the alternative ride back on an Air Force cargo plane.

He sighed and picked his phone off the bedside table. As soon as he turned it on there was a notification for the meeting and Tony grimaced. He didn't even look at the time.

Tony had taken notice that JARVIS had not waken him and Pepper up meaning it was earlier than eight and Tony didn't want the displeasure of knowing how long he would be missing out on the rare, peaceful sleep that he was having only minutes before.

He didn't even enjoy these meeting when he wasn't obligated to go, this wasn't going to be fun at all. He stuffed his phone in his pocket and headed for the airport. This was going to be a long ride.

Comment and review Plz! (Insert puppy dog eyes here)


	4. Chapter 4

Scarlet rubbed her eyes and sat up in the backseat of the car. The leather beneath her made a groaning sound at the shifting weight. When she looked out the window she saw the grape vineyards that she had parked next to that night. She hadn't stopped driving till she was out of state. And only after she had gone a ways down a secluded road, had she let herself get some sleep.

But her sleep was restless, her worried mind wouldn't stop planting seeds of doubt and wouldn't stop playing that horrifying memory of when she last spoke to her mother. It seemed as if her body was running on autopilot through the beginning of her journey, her mind was otherwise occupied.

Unanswered questions bubbled up in her brain. It was like a virus that wouldn't stop spreading. The road became a blur to her as is past beneath her. She felt as if with each mile she traveled she became that much closer to her own uncertainty about the trip.

It was for this reason that she delayed her trip and watched the sun rise over the vineyard. It wasn't until the sun was starting to rise fully into the sky before she got into the front seat. She needed to get there soon.

Scarlet was unfamiliar with Stark's daily routine but from the small snippets she got from the web and magazines she was able to figure out that Tony rarely left his house. Scarlet was still worried about what she might actually say when she met with Tony for the first time. Would he reject helping her? Even still, she had to try.

Turning on the car she got back on the main road and drove as fast as she could to Malibu, only hoping that he was there.

The long driveway curved to the top of the bluff as the engine revved. Scarlet let out a breath and turned off the car when she reached the cul de sac. Grabbing her bag and the folder she walked to the front door and pressed the doorbell after she did this she felt any courage she had drain out of her.

How was she going to ask Tony Stark, the billionaire slash Ironman superhero, to help little old her, find her father? All she had was a little scribbled note on the back of a card. How was that supposed to convince him that he should? What if he realized who she was and called the cops? What would she do then?

This wasn't one of those situations where all he could do was say no. This was one of those situations where she herself was caught in the crossfire. Could she really do this?

No she couldn't. The realization hit her like a full speed truck. She couldn't trust him to help her. Not at all.

But he was the only one who could. The only one who owed something to her family. The only one she would have the courage to stand up to and not let him go back on his word.

Cause after what he had done, he deserved some yelling at.

At that moment the door swung open and Scarlet sucked in a breath.

Behind it was Virginia Potts, smiling. She looked down at Scarlet, that way an adult looks at a little child and stepped forward more.

"Hello, how can I help you?" She asked softly. Scarlet let out her breath and straightened.

"Is Anthony Stark here?" She didn't know why she was being so formal. But she guessed it must be from her nerves.

Pepper's frown was visible for a second before her smile was back up.

"May I ask who is asking?" She said politely.

"Scarlet Miller. Tony owes me a favor." Pepper frowns at her and straightens. The words obviously made her uncomfortable and Scarlet had no doubt she was trying to figure out why Tony would possibly owe her a favor. Not even Scarlet knew how her mother had come to acquire the IOU from the billionaire, she never got an answer out of her mother about it.

"I'm sorry but he isn't here right now. He just flew out to a meeting." Scarlet frowned at this. Tony had signed the company over to Pepper therefore he hadn't needed to go to any meetings anymore. Though Pepper was the new CEO of the company she had a lousy poker face. Which was dangerous while running a fortune 500 company.

When Scarlet had seen Pepper giving updates to the press, the rare times she did herself, you could always tell which subjects she wanted to avoid by her face, which was why she usually had someone else handle the press.

But there was no give away that she was lying. Scarlet didn't understand why he would be at a meeting though because Stark hadn't gone to a meeting since he handed over the company unless he was accompanying Pepper for R&amp;R or….

Unless... Scarlet's eyes widened. But she brought herself back under control and nodded at Pepper.

"I understand. Maybe another time then." Scarlet said and Pepper nodded skeptically. Obviously she had caught Scarlet's small realization. "Well I'll be going then. Thank you." With that Scarlet walked off back to her car. Pepper watched her until Scarlet was completely down the driveway.

Scarlet could just imagine the cogs whirring in her brain as she saw that a teenager was driving a sports car. Scarlet had to hold back a laugh at that.

Once Scarlet was out of the driveway she had kept driving a ways away till, finally, she pulled off the road and slammed her fist against the steering wheel. She rested her forehead against the wheel and gritted her teeth.

"Damn it." Scarlet cursed and got out of the car. The road was empty of any other occupants. In her frustration Scarlet had driven down a dirt road in between vineyards. She walked through the spaces between the posts and was careful not to touch the vines. When she had stopped walking she could barely see the outline of the car.

She sat against a post and looked towards the sky. It was almost a crime to her that it was so clear. With how she was feeling, the sky should be brewing an angry storm that would knock down trees and spit hail down at the streets.

The only meeting that Tony could possibly be in was one with S.H.I.E.L.D. the very people she was avoiding. That meeting could be anywhere and even if she did find where it was chances were that she wouldn't make it on time to catch Tony. But the Avengers would be there, that would be a huge problem.

The entire team was linked to SHIELD. There was nothing that the team could hide from SHIELD. THey had ears on every corner and eyes on every person. If they wanted information they would get it. There was no discussion, most of the time there wasn't even a fight. Since the Avengers were made up up a norse god, two assassins, a scientist with major anger issues, the famous super soldier and a man who wears an iron suit, and not for a fashion statement, Scarlet was positive that being able to hide from them for long would be preposterous.

Scarlet suddenly straightened. The Avengers would be there at the meeting. She shot to her feet and ran back to the car. She ripped open the passenger seat door and snatched the folder from the seat. She took the band off the envelope and flipped to the section with all the online news updates.

Finally she found one that showed a picture of the building in Manhattan. She pulled it out of the folder and started to skim over it. After reading it she smiled. The Avengers had a main base. This would be the only logical place to have a meeting, especially after the helicarrier was under repairs. No one needed a news update to know that.

If this information was common knowledge then she had a hard time find reason as to why the Avengers haven't been attacked again yet. Practically their whole lives could be found on the internet if one looked hard enough. This would be something that Scarlett might be able to use as leverage to get Stark to help her.

Scarlet folded her envelope shut and snapped the band back in place. She felt like smiling but she still knew that she might not make it there in time. And even if she did the Avengers themselves were a problem as well.

Scarlet shook her head and got in the driver seat. She would deal with that when she dot there, for now she would just have to focus on what really matters. Just as she was going to start the car her stomach rumbled and she looked at it startled. And right now what mattered most was getting some food in her.

She realized she hadn't eaten since she bought the food from the gas station, which was gone after driving for so long.

Groaning Scarlet went towards the nearest grocery store and picked up some food that she could eat on the road. She was careful to keep her head down and avoid the billboard with all the missing children at the entrance to the store. The one time she past it she saw that she was still on an AMBER alert.

She got a burner phone since she left her own behind in case it was tracked. The chances of her using it would be slim but she liked to hope that she might be able to talk to Marcus again, even if it was only for a minute. She ate quickly and took a quick stop at the local library to print off directions. She used an overriding code to get into the system without a card, it was amazing what you could learn on the internet. She checked up on the news about Tony Stark. There was a confirmation that Stark was seen boarding a plane earlier that day, but the destination was still unknown. Scarlet shook her head at the fact that something so recent was already up on the web.

Stuffing the new information in the folder and holding onto the directions she set on her way to Manhattan. A supposed 42 hour drive. For a girl with no good options at the moment this was seeming like the best one yet.

So with a ratty baseball cap on her head and aviator sunglasses covering her eyes she set out on Interstate 5 with one goal in mind. To find Tony Stark. She wouldn't stop driving until she found him.

The hours were starting to wear on Scarlet as the sun started to set. Except for the gas stations and a meal break, Scarlet had been driving all day. Her eyes were getting heavy from the lack of sleep she had gotten. She worked out that she could make it to Manhattan in a day and a half. Though she would have to be driving almost non-stop to make that time.

Just the thought of that made her feel even more exhausted. But she needed to keep driving. By the time she will be able to get some sleep she will have to set out around four in the morning. So she kept her eyes on the road and watched the towns pass by. Finally with heavy eyelids she made it to Junction City in Kansas. She managed to find a spot to park in a vacant parking ramp where no one would see her.

She laid down in the backseat. The leather groaned underneath her weight and she traced the lines in the black fabric. Through the sky roof she could see the stars. Unlike her hometown in Arizona she could find the constellations she would usually pick out at night. She could find the big dipper and cancer but all the other stars were blocked out by the city lights.

Scarlet closed her eyes and recalled the time her mother taught her some of the constellations.

"_You see that one, Scarlet?" Her mother asked as they laid out on a blanket in their backyard. This was before Jane, Scarlett's mother, had to sign up for the military when the factory she worked in got shut down. They had time to spend with one another and Jane would find elaborate stories to tell her daughter or teach her all the wonderful things she knew. This was back when everything was in place. "That is the constellation for Leo. That's your sign. It means you are brave and courageous, born to lead, as your grandma would say." Jane turned to look at Scarlet and stroked her cheek. " You will be viable but you will also experience love."_

_At this Scarlet made a sour face and Kane laughed at her daughter._

"_Oh you look at me like that now but one day you're going to find a handsome young boy. He'll fall in love with you in an instant." Jane got to her feet and pulled up her daughter with her. "You'll meet at the ball of a century and he'll take you hand and ask you for a dance." Scarlet grinned up at her mother who started humming a fancy tune she had heard once before on one of her mother's old records._

"_Your heart will swoon and you'll find yourself dancing the night away until you come home. Then of course I would expect you to tell me in exact detail how it went. Hmm?" The two giggled and danced around the yard, Jane humming her favorite melody all the while._

To this memory Scarlet fell asleep while humming the song her mother had fallen in love with.


	5. Chapter 5

The thing about flying for Tony is that ever since he first put on the suit, flying isn't fun unless he is in a suit, a metal one for that matter. Tony sunk down in the soft white leather chair and tapped his knuckles on the wooden table while bouncing his foot on the floor. He was driving the flight stewardess insane with his stir-crazy.

He watched the land below grow closer. As they came closer to the landing strip in the distance he could see the mostly re-built tower with the large A completely replaced.

The flight stewardess told him that he needed to buckle up, with an urgency that confirmed her irritation with him. Tony nodded and put the buckle on as they descended through the stray clouds. When the plane finally touched ground Tony was about to shout for joy along with the attendant. After a five hour flight Tony couldn't wait to get out and stretch his legs. When the stairs came out he quickly nodded to the captain and stewardess and raced down the steps. He didn't even put on his sunglasses yet before he saw a car waiting for him. Tony could easily peg them as SHIELD agents. Tony let out a breath and put on a tight smile that was really enough to be passed for his usual smirk.

" ." The man said opening the door for him. Tony nodded and slipped into the car to see Natasha sitting opposite of him. He let out a sharp breath and slouched down in his seat for a moment before he crossed his legs and put his hands in his lap.

"And here I thought I might be able to get to the tower without an escort." Tony joked and looked out the window as the car headed out of the airport. Natasha tilted her head to the side and watched Tony.

"I would have thought you would come in a suit." She said. Tony looked down and raised his arms.

"What Jeans and a T-shirt aren't good enough for you?" He asked with dry humor. He dropped his hands on his thighs with a slap. Natasha narrowed her eyes at him and gave him a sarcastic look.

"You know what I meant." She said. Tony looked back out the window.

"Yeah well Pepper had a boyfriend coming over, I had to get out of the house early." Tony mumbled in a lame attempt at humor.

Natasha rolled her eyes and began a short explanation of why she was there. This of course was ignored by Tony. He really wasn't interested at the moment. His mind was otherwise preoccupied with other things.

They were only minutes away from the tower now and Tony could watch it growing larger through his window. He hadn't been back to the tower since the fight with Loki and his army and he wasn't planning on coming back this soon either. It wasn't as if the place wasn't fixed or anything. That was the first thing on the agenda for Tony. But he just couldn't stand looking out for the penthouse windows and see all the destruction the Chitauri caused. It was only a month after the attacks so the reconstruction of the city was still being completed.

There were still some people who thought that the Avengers were also responsible for some of the destruction of the city, mainly the political figures of New York. So Thor and Bruce weren't too popular with anyone of high ranking in the city, particularly Senator Stern.

Tony wondered if SHIELD managed to get a hold of Bruce and Thor. A month was definitely long enough for Bruce to go back to some remote country and Thor has been in Asgard since or at least that's what Tony knew of.

Tony had tried to convince Bruce to stay with him for a while and show off his _candyland _but Bruce declined and was off before Tony could convince him otherwise. Tony just shrugged it off knowing that the man hadn't stayed in one place for more than a few weeks in a long time. And he seemed to enjoy helping the sick in third world countries, though not as much as love loved science. Tony could tell that much.

Rogers was not a problem, he had never strayed too far from the army so Tony couldn't imagine they had a hard time finding him. Not to mention he acted like a scared bunny when ever he faced a technical problem in this _futuristic_ world. Whenever the Captain was around Tony, Stark went out of his way to try and confuse the soldier as much as he could with his techno lingo. It wasn't like he enjoyed it, he just couldn't help but be bitter towards the captain. Okay maybe he did enjoy it a bit but it was only fun, most of the time.

Natasha and Clint both were agents and were so far on call, as Tony knew. Unless there was a new recruit that Tony wasn't told about then that meant everyone was accounted for. Though it might be amusing if they had Spider-Man join the group, can you imagine the amount of trouble that kid could get in. Not to mention two spiders would be crawling around on the team. Spider-man had been around longer than even Ironman. He was one of the originals, as Tony would call them. Aside from the Captain, Spider-man was probably the first public hero in America.

Though it would be enjoyable to have him around, Tony doubted the team could stand his quips, the same with Tony. The guy's lines were hilarious but very envious. Tony would probably drive himself mad to try and up the guy in sly comments. In the end the team would probably duck tape their mouths shut. Just the though of it brought a smirk to Tony's face.

"I'm sorry Mr. Stark has something I have said amused you?" Natasha asked bringing Tony's attention back to Natasha. Tony looked at her with a blank look and instead of coming up with one of his snarky remarks he merely said.

"I'm sorry what were you saying?" He asked and Natasha rolled her eyes. Yeah he would definitely have some competition if Spider-man joined this quirky crew.

The car came to a stop, within seconds the suicide doors opened and a hand was outstretched to Natasha. Tony looked up to see Hawkeye. Natasha took his hand and got out of the car quickly, followed by Tony.

Tony looked up at the giant tower in front of him as he tugged on the hem of his sweatshirt. He followed behind the two agents as they went inside, though noticeably slower. Once inside, Tony could see many SHIELD operatives walking around the building as they approached the elevators. Tony did a full circle as he saw the commotion in the building that was nearly abandoned around a month or two ago.

There were teams of people, in their own messy huddles, talking to each other, each member had at least one ot two files in hand. There was a main desk set up right in the entry that had a giant SHIELD logo stamped right on the front of it.

Tony couldn't help be be a bit annoyed with it. The building, though it was a prototype, wasn't made for SHIELD to operate. Tony was thinking that the building might have been an adaptation to R&amp;R department. There were a couple of people he wanted to look into for the company. Now everything was pushed to the side as SHIELD made themselves comfortable.

Tony couldn't tell if Pepper had done it for her own enjoyment or if she really felt as if they wouldn't try to take the building as theirs in the end. Even though they were just borrowing the tower for only a short amount of time Tony felt as if somehow Fury would come in and take his baby from him.

"Hurry up Stark." He heard Clint say from the inside of an elevator. Tony hurried over and got in, then watched Hawkeye as he hit the button for the penthouse floor. The doors closed and the three were brought up to the top, when the doors opened Tony saw that the room had not been changed except for the floor, windows and stonework had been replaced. "This part of the building still remains yours exclusively, Stark during SHIELD's stay." Hawkeye said going over to the couch and sitting down, Natasha following him close behind.

Something about that fact irked Tony in a way he wouldn't imagine. Tony just passed it off at anger at Hawkeye lounging on his couch and putting his feet up on the glass table. Though he knew it had something to do with the way the man had thrown the situation back in his face point blank, but Tony make a point to ignore the verbal bash. Instead, he walked over to one of the armchairs and sat down, facing the two.

"You make it sound like I'm running a hotel." Tony snarked. "So when will the rest of the lovely bunch arrive?" Tony asked crossing his arms.

"Bruce should be getting here in a few hours, Thor was already here visiting his lady friend and as for Cap, well, he is on an errand for Fury right now and he should be getting back soon." Barton said and Tony smirked.

"Hard to imagine him having errands, there more like feats." He said. "Don't take this the wrong way but why are you here?" Tony asked and Natasha sat up.

"Simply put, as I assume you weren't listening to me in the car, we are here to babysit you." She said.

Tony nodded slowly and then got up from his was not planning on letting them watch him while they wait for the others. The two of them together was more than intimidating. But the thing that bothered him the most was something he couldn't deny, even with all the complaints about the mess with SHIELD and his building and having his own babysitters.

This tower was haunting him and there was no mistake that even just sitting in the room was bringing back the memories of the last time he stayed here. Of course his teammate's were unaware of his problem, with all their assumptions of him they could never guess that he was a master at hiding his emotions. He found it ironic that neither of them hadn't noticed his reluctance to bite back at their snarky comments. Tony could only guess that they thought they had tripped up his tongue.

The though amused him.

"Well, tell me how well that works out for you." He said as he walked out to the balcony, his suit being put on as he walked.

"Stark!" Hawkeye yelled as Tony reached the end of the walk and he gave them both a flippant salute as his facemask came into place. Tony took off into the sky and flew off with the intentions to eat at that shawarma joint, the one the team had gone to before. Maybe even a quick flying maneuver around the statue of liberty.

Though by the time he did this barely an hour had passed and he felt as if the entire team wouldn't be back by then. Even Tony was aware that Banner would take his sweet time getting back to the hustle and bustle of the city. So he wasted another hour trying out new flight maneuvers he had been working on, much to Jarvis's disdain. Tony was alerted the moment the last member of the team had stepped foot through the front doors of the building and he made his way back.

By the time Tony got back there were two fuming agents, one dirt covered Captain, a god wearing a long red cape and one genius in gamma radiation. Not to mention the director and his right hand man, or woman as you could say. Tony landed with a thud and walked inside, the armor striped from him as he walked.

He didn't have a care for the frowning faces that were directed at him. He had long ago gotten used to them and stopped trying to please them by _shutting up_ and _following orders_ as Rogers put it.

"Nice to see that you had the time to join us Stark." Fury said and Tony shrugged. Captain Blackbeard frowned at him but must have notice that it was having no effect and looked to the rest of the team ignoring the billionaire.

"I though the meeting was tomorrow." Tony said walking over to the bar and pouring himself a drink of water.

"It is." Natasha said her arms crossed.

"Really Stark, now you decide to drink." Cap said as if he wasn't covered in dirt and standing in the middle of the carpet.

"What, its water." Tony said taking a sip.

"Right." Cap said glaring, turning back to the Fury.

"Back to what I was saying." Fury said, sounding annoyed. "The meeting tomorrow starts at ten in the morning. You need to be on time. That means you too Stark." Tony brought his hands up in a confused gesture, the glass still in hand.

"Why me?" Fury walked into the elevator with his right hand woman.

"I'll see you all tomorrow. You will all be staying here tonight. Tony, I trust that you will find them rooms to stay in." With that the elevator doors closed and they were left alone. It was an expected departure from the director,tony thought, god knows that without his dramatic entrances and exits it would take away from the moment.

Tony sighed and turned back to Rogers, placing the empty glass in the sink.

"So what happened to you?" He asked and Steve glared at him.

"That's classified."

"Remind me why we are having the meeting here?" Bruce cut in before the two had time to go at each other. The group turned to him and Natasha responded.

"The helicarrier is under repairs and remodeling." She said slowly glancing at Hawkeye as she spoke. Thor tossed his hammer into the other hand and stepped forward with one foot.

"So do we have to remain here? I have other-" He was cut off by Steve.

"Our orders are to stay here." Tony rolled his eyes at him and walked away from the counter.

"Well I wasn't planning for a sleepover but let me see if there is enough room for all of you or if Cap needs the couch. I prefer the former." Tony said walking down the side hall and checking the rooms. Though the level didn't look as big the floor could hold up to five guest rooms including a master bedroom. Tony had anticipated that he might be handling some of SHIELD's guests. Though when he built the tower he was still merely a consultant and had no intention of having a single member of the avengers stay there.

It was just as well though, then he wouldn't have to hear anyone complaining about having to sleep out in the living room. Even though he didn't sleep much, he would never let anyone but Pepper or him set foot in the master bedroom. Maybe Rodey if it was a special case but otherwise not a single soul would dare go in there.

After grabbing extra blankets and putting them in the guest rooms he went and checked on the master bedroom. It was the last door in the hallway pushed back to the south side of the building, it was almost identical to the one in Malibu except that there was a marble counter top next to the door that ran the length of the wall all the way to the bathroom, above it was a large mirror. Tony saw that the bed was unmade from the last time he had stayed here, right after the attack. that was when he had his first nightmare. One that would seem just childsplay compared to recent ones.

Tony shook his head in order to have the memories of that dream go away. He made up the bed and went back out to the main room there he saw everyone was on the couches and talking about their endeavors for the past two months. All except Natasha who was only listening. The sun was setting behind them and Tony saw that soon they would all start heading to their rooms. He figured he should get into the shop now rather than wake them later.

"What about you Stark?" Steve said turning his head to face Tony. "What have you been doing?" Tony opened his mouth to tell them all about the new designs he had for the Ironman but he though better than to bore them with the details so he just said.

"That's classified." Tony took out his phone and pulled up some specs for the armor. Bruce snorted and Steve frowned turning back to the group. "Anyways there is unfortunately enough room for you all. Sorry Cap you must part with the couch tonight." Tony patted Steve on the head as he walked over to his workshop. Steve moved his head away from him and glared at him as Tony frowned down at his phone. "All the rooms are down that hall over there. The last door at the end of the hall is my room and if you even set foot in it I will have Jarvis sick dummy on you with the fire extinguisher. I will be in my lab most of the night, if you have any questions keep them to yourself, goodnight."

"But what about-" Thor started but was stopped in a second.

The doors to the shop opened and the team got a glimpse of all the suits hanging from the walls as he entered.

"Oops, sorry big guy that's a question." Tony said as he held up a hand in a motion for him to stop.

The doors to the lab shut behind him and Tony could hear the faint click of the lock. Tony slid his finger up the screen of his phone and a holographic image of the armor on his phone appeared in front of him.

Tony put his phone back in his pocket and pulled up a metal stool to sit in front of it. He was trying to figure out how to make the final part of the suit without the actual suit being there. He knew he had everything above the waist done but there was still the bottom half he needed to finish.

Tony shrugged and started working from the feet.

Hey!

This took me forever I know it but I finally go the editing done. I'm sorry it took so long but my school work finally caught up with me. My school is a little bit different than most and in order to get my standards I have to create projects but the thing is at a certain point during your schooling you have to do a massive capstone project and mine took up most, if not all, of my time. I finally got it done and I am free to write until my hearts content. But I do feel terrible for it taking this long. I am going to try and get another chapter up within 24-hours but I'm not sure if that will happen. This chapter alone has 3,137 words in it though so I hope that will keep you happy for now.

But I was just wondering what you guys where thinking of the story and I would really appreciate some feedback on my writing. I don't really know how I am doing since this is my first time putting my stuff online or writing a fanfiction. I do have other ideas for fanfiction's and original stories, though I am keeping those on the back burner until I can finish this one. I hate to drop things in the middle of it.

Again I am so sorry, hope you enjoy! ;)


	6. Chapter 6

STOP! IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE PREVIOUSLY EDITED CHAPTERS THAN GO BACK AND DO THAT. YOU WILL NOT UNDERSTAND THIS IF YOU DO NOT GO BACK AND RE-READ THE PREVIOUS CHAPTERS. ONLY CHAPTERS 2-5 HAVE BEEN CHANGED IF YOU HAVE ALREADY RE-READ THEM THEN YOU MAY CONTINUE. Have a nice day. :)

Scarlet rubbed her eyes waking up from her light sleep. The leather of the car seat groaned underneath her again and she frowned. It wasn't the most comfortable to sleep in a backseat but it was the safest option for her.

Checking her watch she saw that she had overslept and that it was 6 already. She jumped up and climbed to the driver's seat. This would set her back by a lot. The trip would take an extra day now. Scarlet gave out a frustrated huff as she started the car and tore out onto the road.

She got back on Interstate 15 and only thirty miles down the highway she heard a siren behind her. She looked in the rear view mirror to see a police car creeping up behind her. She looked down at the speedometer and cursed. She was traveling at speeds higher than 95 MPH.

She cursed at her stupidity. That was something she would definitely need to keep in mind for the future, if she ever got out of this one.

There was no way that she could pull over because they would ask for ID and they would obviously peg her as the girl from the AMBER alert. So Scarlet kept driving. She went faster and tried her best to weave through traffic, it wasn't to hard because of the sirens behind her that cleared a path. A ways down the road she saw an exit and she took it last minute. The police car that was following her swerved and missed the exit by barely anything and she saw him trying to maneuver back in her rear view mirror.

Scarlet ran the light at the bottom of the ramp and went down some random streets to make sure she lost him. She ended up getting lost in an urban home district.

The sound of sirens could be heard from all around and she figured there were cops scouting all around to find her. She needed to get out of the way. Scarlet went through different roads until she found a dirt road. She went down that and in the distance she saw a long strip of pavement. She stopped and watched as a plane touched down on the pavement.

An airport. That is what she needed. If she could get a ticket to the city then she wouldn't have to worry about it. From a distance the airport looked rather small with little security. Scarlet smirk thinking that it would be all too easy to sneak her way through the airport.

To the side of the road she saw a small cover made of trees and bushes. She could hide the car there, call Marcus to tell him to pick it up and change the plates. At least it wasn't too far from him. So that's what she did. The car was hidden perfectly in the bushes and she left a pile of stones to mark where the car was in case Marcus needed help finding it.

She hitched it the rest of the way to the airport and entered the building. On her way there she managed to find the street name of the dirt road and she sent the street name and the name of the airport, to Marcus. Before she could get a response she broke the phone in half and threw it in the dirt. There was no reason for her to hold onto it.

Besides if she kept it she might be tempted to call Marcus and he might get in a lot of trouble if she did that. It was best to keep her away from anything like that.

It was a small airport with a desk in front,a man sat behind it. There were many beer bottles on the desk and an ashtray that was overflowing with cigarette buds. He was chewing gum loudly while talking to someone on the phone, flipping through a magazine, he propped his feet up on the counter. When Scarlet reached him he glanced over at her and put up a finger to have her wait for a moment.

"Listen, I gotta go. I'll see you later Benny don't forget that money you owe me. Yeah I want it tonight, no excuses. Take your girl out next month. Well that's not my problem is it? Benny, don't make me tell your girl about our little deal. Okay good, tomorrow then. See ya." The man slammed down the receiver and put his feet back on the floor. He took a large gulp out of a beer bottle and then tossed it into the nearest bin, or as close as he could get. "How can I help ya darlin'?" He slurred and Scarlet took a deep breath.

"You have anything going to Manhattan perchance?" Scarlet asked.

"You look a little young for someone to be traveling alone little missy." He said looking over Scarlet.

"You look a little like you had a little too much of the happy juice while on the job." Scarlet retorted. "I could just tell your manager about this." The man's eyes grew big and he stopped with the questions.

Ten minutes later Scarlet was in a small plane with a few other people. The flight took what felt like forever and when they finally got to Manhattan, Scarlet had her fill of peanuts. Scarlet was the first one off the plane with her things. She immediately found the exit, making sure to cover her face with a baseball cap and hailed a taxi as soon as she got out of the airport.

She had the cab driver take her straight to the Stark building. Scarlet had never been in a city with a higher population than 10,000 people so she watched the people in the city rush by not even noticing the others on the street as they were all on there phones, talking with friends next to them, walking a pet or even just ignoring the people in general.

There was a lot of scaffolding set up on the blocks and Scarlet guessed it was from the alien attack. She would understand that most of the city still wasn't rebuilt. But there was major funding and donations going into helping Manhattan get back up on their feet. But along with all of this she noticed that even with all the people walking on the sidewalk there weren't as many as she would have pictured.

"Most people hitched it out of here after the attack." Scarlet was startled by the driver speaking, then she realized she must have been thinking aloud. "Some lost their jobs and had to get out before they had to move onto the streets, others left because they were scared, I guess they think that if it happened once it will happen again." The driver chuckled as he turned a corner.

Scarlet didn't respond. She didn't know much about aliens and for the longest time she thought it was insanity and absurd that people even believed in them. It was irrational and stupid, but then they event of the attack came and Scarlet was sent for a whirl along with the rest of humanity. But even with all that evidence she refused to take a side on the matter. She wouldn't say whether she thought it could happen again or not.

It disturbed her in the least so avoiding the topic was best. Fascination could be restrained in the presence of caution.

The cab dropped her at the building and she stared up at it for a moment. From there all she needed to do was get in an elevator and go up to the correct floor. But there was a small problem there. The building was obviously not supposed to be used for anything yet since it was still under repairs. You could see the cranes next to the building with workers bring up new beams and materials. You would think that there wouldn't be anyone doing anything in there other than repairs.

But as Scarlet got closer she saw people swarming through the building they were all dressed in dark blues and blacks. Each one had a small symbol on their sleeves. The sign of SHIELD. Scarlet's heart started pounding as she walked towards the doors slowly.

If she walked through those doors and got caught then all the lengths she had taken to avoid them would be for nothing. For a few moments Scarlet paused and thought of turning around and leaving. But if she didn't go in and ask him now, if he was really in a meeting with SHIELD then Tony could be going halfway around the world for a mission within the hour and Scarlet would have to be on the run for a longer amount of time. Making the chances of her actually getting help from Tony slimmer and slimmer, the chances of getting caught would be higher.

Even though Amber Alerts only last for around 48 hours, SHIELD would keep looking for her to their best ability until they find her. The longer it takes the worse the situation will get. With her final decision, Scarlet gave a short nod to herself and strode into the building. She went up the elevator and got to Tony's penthouse without anyone stopping her or even giving her a second glance.

Her heart wouldn't stop pounding on her chest and she convinced herself that everyone who saw her knew what she was up to and where she was going.

It was when she was in the elevator when she realized that Tony's reaction to her barging in on him without permission and asking him to find her father might not be great. The plan was likely to go to hell in a hand-basket in more ways than one. The assent to the top of the tower was taking forever to Scarlet.

She wished that she could just get out of the building now but she couldn't risk opening the doors on a different level and having SHIELD agents swarm her and ask her all kinds of questions.

Her heart felt like it was going to explode out of her chest and that it was only a matter of time before the doors open and she would get a yelling at from Ironman, minus the whole get up.

When the elevator finally opened up there was no one in sight.

Scarlet didn't know which one was worse, walking in on him or having him walk in on her. But she was sure that she was going to find out sooner than later. Scarlet took out her envelope and flipped it open. There were the old articles that she had but she never confirmed that he was here and she silently cursed herself for not checking the web for information on him arriving or not.

She cautiously put a foot out of the elevator and looked around the room for a person. The room seemed empty but the breakfast mess was left uncleaned in the open kitchen. There were chairs left pushed out at the table and throw pillows that were literally, pardon the pun, thrown haphazardly across the room.

Something didn't seem right. There were dishes stacked in the kitchen, they were all dirt but there was a pile of them. That suggested that there was a build up of dishes that needed to be done, but somehow Scarlet couldn't see a billionaire's house getting cluttered at all so that lead her to believe that there was more than one person staying there, the extras would be the Avengers.

Scarlet gulped as she came to this realization. She didn't know what to do. If she just stayed there and the Avengers came back all at once, how was she going to convince Tony to help her then How was she going to convince him in the first place?

She had never really thought this through. There was no reason for him to help her other than an old slip of paper that might have even been a forge. There was no way to prove that the signature as actually his. If she didn't get his help though, then what would she do? There was nothing left to help her find her father. Her mother never really did tell her what to do when and if she was ever gone. She just said to stay away from SHIELD.

Now here she was standing in the middle of one of their bases waiting for her one and only chance to come up with his entire team and tell her to get out. Then she would have nothing. She would have no one but Marcus maybe. If she could ever get anything to settle down again.

She never knew why her mom was always so secretive, she had asked once but her mother never gave her a straight answer. But when her mother said to stay away from something, Scarlet was sure to do just that, stay away. But in this case she was scared and she didn't know what to do anymore. She was running on a theory and if it didn't pan out then she had no clue what she was going to do.

So with a pounding heart and courage that was slowly running out she sat down on the edge of a couch and waited for someone to come in.

It is currently 1:27 in the morning and I just finished that in like twenty minutes. I don't know where it came form and I don't know how good it actually is, I know it is short and not as long as it could be but I tried right? But I felt bad about having to make all you lovelies wait while I fumbled about so I gave a late night update and here it is. I hope you enjoy it. Just so you know this has like 2,248 word count or something like that so I think that's pretty good for a late night try.

;P See ya later people! Please Review and I will be very happy!


	7. Chapter 7

Tony stood in the middle of the destroyed highway in front of the Stark Tower. Only the S and T had fallen off at the moment. When he looked down he saw that his suit was nearly destroyed and his facemask ripped off, his chest exposed, and a hand piece was torn off, along with a kneecap. He could hear the roars of the Chitauri army as they attacked the Avengers. Natasha was fighting off as many as she could but she was stabbed straight through the back as she was overcome by five of them. Tony let out yell as she fell to the pavement with her eyes wide open, blood dripping from her mouth.

Thor was being shot down while airborn, by the guns on the speeding crafts. He slammed into the side of the Empire building. The large worm-like creatures were tearing the Hulk apart with their jaws. Hulk was struggling to escape from them and tear them apart himself.

Hawkeye was thrown off his look out post on top of a building, without any arrows to catch his fall. Cap was thrown by a grenade into a charred bus, he slumped to the ground and didn't move from that spot.

Tony looked between the fallen members of his team willing them to get back up and fight but they wouldn't move no matter how much he wanted them to. He wanted to run over to them and yank them out of it, but he couldn't manage to move a step. _Their okay._ He tried to calm himself. _They are perfectly fine._ Tony wanted to call out to them but he found that his own voice was choking him, his throat was burning. It took him a moment to realize that he was crying.

_Get up!_ He wanted to scream at them. _Don't just lay there!_ But Tony knew no matter how much he wanted them to they wouldn't. They couldn't. They were gone. Tony turned his head to see a large Chitauri in front of him. This one was different. It was taller than the others, it's back was hunched over because of it, it was only a bit taller than the Hulk. It was grotesquely thin and slime dripped down from its body.

The thing leaned closer to Tony as he stared up at it with wide eyes. It had teeth that were sharp and yellow with decay. As it leaned closer to Tony he couldn't help but take a step back. This one seemed like was more intelligent than all the other warriors. Its eyes were piercing and it seemed like they burned Tony's skull just by looking at them.

"Now it's your turn, Stark." It said in a morphed voice. It lunged at him with its jaws snapping and Tony yelled at the top of his lungs, but even that was caught in his throat.

Tony woke, panting. Papers were stuck to his forehead, he ripped them off and threw them on the floor. Gasping for air, he turned around and faced the rest of the room. It was empty, no one no one else was there except for himself. Tony let out a sigh of relief, he put his hand over his heart and felt the fast palpitation.

He heard thudding on the door and he jumped up from his seat in surprise. His head whipped to the door where the pounding stopped and he could hear a faint conversation on the other side of the door.

"Hurry up, Stark! We have to get going." Tony heard Hawkeye yell through the door. Tony let out a quick breath and ran a hand through his hair. He took another look around the room. It was cleaned up, all of the tools were put away. He could faintly remember doing that. He saw the bottom of the Ironman suit on the giant metal table and he stood up.

He walked over to it. The sleek black and yellow design made him smirk. He couldn't remember where he had left off with the suit back at the mansion but he did what he could.

"Jarvis," Tony said as he grabbed a hoodie off the back of his chair. "Have this sent to the mansion as soon as you can. Please make sure, this time, that the delivery boy doesn't just leave it on the doorstep."

"Yes, Sir. Would you like it to arrive today?"

He pulled his hoodie on and looked back towards the suit.

"Have it arrive and put in the workshop when Pepper is out. Wouldn't want to startle her like last time."

"Yes, Sir."

Tony walked over to the other side of his workshop and the doors slid open when he reached them. He stuffed a hand in his hoodie pocket and rubbed his eye with his other hand, a yawn escaping his mouth as he walked towards the counter, more specifically the coffee.

"I don't get how he can work on that stuff all the time, I mean, Bruce do you lock yourself up in your lab and spend hours upon hours in there?" Tony heard Steve say with his back to Tony. tony grabbed the coffee pot and poured himself a cup, throwing a glance over his shoulder at Steve, mid rant.

Bruce saw Tony and glanced back and forth between the two. Tony smirked, put the pot back on the warmer and turned back towards the group. Thor was stuffing his face with Pop Tarts, his new favorite midgard food. Clint and Natasha were sitting on the couch and there were pillows scattered around the entire floor.

Tony didn't even wanna ask about that. Steve and Bruce were standing next to the bay windows looking out at the city.

"Well I don't have a lab anymore, so." Bruce said with his eyes landing on Tony. Rogers finally noticed Tony was there and turned to him. Tony walked towards his room, calling out behind him.

"I'll be right back." Tony chose to ignore the Cap's comment on his habit and closed the door to his room behind him.

Tony changed into fresh clothing, as he was straightening his tie he noticed his eyes were getting bags under them. Tony sighed and went to the bathroom to wash his face with some cold water to make them go away to a degree. He wiped off his face and ran a hand through his hair in a lazy effort to look presentable. Fortunately this made it look like he actually tried to look good. He went back to the main room and they all headed to the twentieth floor where the meeting was being held.

The elevator ride was making Tony feel sick. The lost hours of sleep were catching back up to Tony. His head was pounding against his rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger, then casually leaned against the side of the elevator to steady himself. Of course to the others it merely looked like he was bored, but Tony didn't notice Bruce frowning at his action.

He seemed to notice that it was a little bit more than boredom.

When the elevator finally stopped it automatically opened up to a large meeting room with a view of Manhattan. In front of one of the large windows stood Fury. Hill was sitting in one of the tall black swivel chairs looking at a small screen on the table. Fury turned around and motioned for the team to take their seats. Tony was the last one out of the elevator as the team took their seats.

Tony sat as far from the group as he could. Fury sat down at the head of the table with Hill to his left and Natasha to his right. Next to Natasha was Hawkeye and Thor. Next to Hill sat Steve and Bruce. Tony sat two seats down from everyone on the left. The Fury looked around the table before saying anything. Tony was scratching the back of his neck, uncomfortable in a meeting as always. Finally Fury let out a sigh and leaned back in his chair.

"We have reports of activity around the Gulf of Mexico. A large battleship is currently heading towards Florida. We do not know their intentions or where they got the ship, so we need you to find out what you can about this before it reaches the coast." Fury said.

"I'm sorry but isn't this a job for the Navy?" Bruce asked folding his hands on the tabletop. The Fury nodded in acknowledgment.

"Usually it is, but this is a different case." Fury gestured to the digital pictures that had just appeared on the table. "Currently this is a group that we know little of about their origins or their capabilities. Because of this we are taking caution."

Tony sucked in a breath as he saw the familiar images of the Ten Rings flags that was being flown from the top of the ship and over the side. The others frowned down at the picture not understanding what it was they were being shown. Seconds later information on the Ten Rings appeared in front of them, it was startling to see the amount of information that was missing.

Normally there would be a mountain of information for them to go through but this time there was only a few pages that were personal records of people's interactions with the group. But opposite to their short record they had a massive casualty rate going.

"Tony has some experience with these people." Fury said and everyone looked over at him with surprised eyes. "Don't you Stark?" Tony let out a breath and nodded his head, looking over at Fury squinting.

"I thought their leader, Raza, was finished after what happened with Stain." Tony asked tugging his hand down his goatee with force. Fury studied him before answering. He was trying to catch anything that would tell him that Tony was to be extracted from this assignment.

"He was, but now they have a new leader. One we don't know about apparently." Fury rested his elbows on the table and put his face in his hands. "That's why we need you guys to figure out all you can about them." Tony started speaking before he finished.

"But what about your guys? Why do you need us too? Surely you have analysts for this or something." Tony said in a strained voice. The team was looking back and forth between the two, not understanding Tony's reaction.

"Everyone we have is working on repairing the Helicarrier so we can get out of your hair as soon as possible or they are working on smaller tasks. Since you have had experiance with these people before I thought that it would be best to have you and the team working on it." Fury said calmly, almost as if defending himself. Steve sat forward in his chair trying to get into the conversation.

"Yeah experience, that's a nice way to put it." Tony grumbled.

"I'm sorry, what kind of history does Tony have with these people and who are they?" The rest of the team nodded, agreeing with him. Tony glared at Fury and sighed looking down at the table.

He had erased any and all evidence of what happened from SHIELD's database. In fact he erased most of the information in his file. They eventually stopped replacing the data, because of this Natasha didn't know a lot about Tony, even after she was assigned to assess his personality for the Avengers. Though he did leave all the documents about Natasha's view on his personality, he felt like that would be a way of maintaining a bit of maturity on his part.

Fury leaned back in his seat and gestured to Tony.

"Why don't you let him tell you." He said and all eyes turned to Tony. To which Tony looked at everyone in return. He was debating what he was going to tell him. He felt as if telling them everything would be too much. There was no reason to get personal.

"They are called the Ten Rings." He started. Fury raised an eyebrow at his tone. It was as if he was daring them to try asking for more information than he was giving. And if they did he would tear them to pieces. "They are a terrorist organization dedicated to destroying world peace by any means necessary. They are believed to be led by a mysterious man known as the Mandarin. But this is not confirmed. A few years ago, when I was still working with the military, we were in Afghanistan and they attacked the convoy that I was traveling with." Tony paused and took a deep breath. He put his elbow on the table and placed his hand on his forehead.

"They wanted me to make them the new Jericho missile I invented but I refused to. In order to escape from their hideout, I made the Mark 1 of the Ironman series and got out of there. When I got back I had stopped all production of weapons and that was that." Tony laid his hand down on the table.

"I later found out they were hired to kill me in the beginning but they saw better uses for me. It doesn't really matter all that much, but," Tony adjusted the way he was sitting and looked the Director. "Do you really want me working on this?" Tony asked Fury.

It was silent in the room as the team took in what Tony had said. Fury studied Tony and Stark could feel him weighing his options. Finally he spoke.

"I still want you to work with the team on this. You will be looking for all the information you can find on them. You can leave now while I speak with the rest of the team." Tony raised an eyebrow and nodded to the Director. Everyone noticed that he didn't have one snarky comment but he did seem a bit stoic.

Tony entered the elevator without another word. When the elevator doors closed he let out a breath and leaned against the wall. His exhaustion was showing through now and he felt as if he could collapse at any moment. The elevator stopped and opened up to the penthouse, all he wanted to do was grab coffee and sit down. He thought that maybe then he could rest for a second and get some energy back. But he had expected the room to be empty so he could grab the drink, sit and get back into the lab before the team got back.

What he was not expecting was a girl sitting on his couch with her hands folded in front of her and a thick envelope sitting on her lap. When she heard the elevator doors open she turned around and stood up. With the file in one hand, she stuck her free hand out for Tony to shake.

"Hello Mr. Stark."

OoO

Hey guys! Another midnight update! I am so happy that I got back to this story. I enjoy writing it a lot! I'm not sure about how I am portraying Tony in this story so if I could have a bit of feedback on that, it would be great. Thanks for reading! Till later, pepz!

Please Review!

Bye!


	8. Chapter 8

Scarlet stood with her hand outstretched to Tony Stark, in her high waist jeans, graphic tee and a pair of high heel leather ankle boots, with a fat folder in one hand and a smile that was failing her. Tony Stark could not look more surprised that she was there. She didn't blame him at all. In all honesty she thought it would be harder to get into the penthouse. But no one noticed her on her way into the building or even when she was in it. So much for SHIELD agents being on point.

That was something that confused her. Why wasn't there anything to stop her from getting in here. She knew that there must have been something in Stark's AI program that would have prohibited her from accessing this level at only thing that she could think of was that the program must have been pushed to the side to allow the SHIELD officers to access other parts of the building but she doubted Tony would ever allow that.

So what exactly was going on. From the looks of things downstairs it seemed like SHIELD had just moved into the building and seeing the way they were set up made her think that they were getting ready to head out soon. Are they anticipating Stark kicking them out or are they eager to be out of this building? But she needed to focus back on what she was doing now.

Scarlet was about to start explaining why she was there when she noticed that he didn't look too well. He had bags under his eyes, they weren't pronounced or anything but they were still there. He seemed to be a bit hunched over and looked as if he was a deer in headlights. Scarlet immediately thought that the first thing that was on his agenda must have been either coffee or a nap.

Seeing as he seemed to be in mid route for the kitchen before he noticed her, she would guess coffee.

This confused Scarlet though. Why would he be so tired? Maybe it was all the work he had to do, but last she checked Tony was only in charge of R&amp;D section of SI. Or maybe it was that he had extra work with the Avengers. Scarlet could fathom many reasons in her head but she stopped before she got carried away.

Tony was still staring at her and her hand was still out stretched. She cleared her throat and placed her hand next to her side after she realized that he wasn't going to shake it. She was about to start talking again before Tony beat her to it.

"Jarvis, who is this and why didn't you tell me she was here?" At first Scarlet was confused but then she remembered the man's AI. It was a system Tony had made in his younger years.

"I have not found her name yet." A robotic voice came from the ceiling and Scarlet would have jumped if she didn't know what the AI was. "The reason I did not alert you to her presence was because you had asked me not to interrupt any of your meetings." Tony never took his eyes off Scarlet as if she might lunge at him any second. It was starting to grate on her nerves but she did guess that barging in like this would have this kind of effect.

"If I can clear that up my name is Scarlet Jane." Scarlet interrupted raising her hand like a preschooler. Tony looked to the ceiling for confirmation and Scarlet sucked in a deep breath. She had worked on the fake identity thing at her house before she left but she thought she did a great job on making the records official. She even set up a fake GPA at a random school in New York.

"The information has been confirmed. Scarlet Miller, 18 years old, graduated from Eleanor Roosevelt High School this year in June. A 3.1 GPA with extracurricular in soccer. Mother is Jane Miller born 1965 November 15. Father Unknown."

Tony looked from the ceiling to Scarlet and she let out her breath slowly. She was glad that the computer hadn't caught that it was fake. She hadn't been able to see any difference between her real documents and the ones she forged and she joked with herself that if this didn't work out she could forge a passport to a different country and create fake money and get a mob boss boyfriend like one of those cheesy movies.

"Jarvis tell me when the team is coming back." Tony said.

"Yes, Sir." The AI answered before going silent.

"So why are you here Mrs. Jane?" Tony asked taking a step towards her, forgetting about his coffee run. He still seemed fatigued but he seemed to be trying to cover it up at the moment but Scarlet thought he was more or less failing. She was beginning to wonder if the Avengers team was aware of his state and he was sent back from his meeting early because of it.

"It's Scarlet and the reason I am here is because of that Unknown part of my life that your AI just listed out." Scarlet raising her eyebrows at the name. Tony frowned at her.

"You dad?" He asked. "If you have come here to tell me that it's me, I'm sorry but I call bullshit." Scarlet gave a small laugh.

"No that's not why I am here, I actually need your help finding him. You see he didn't ever make contact with my family but I need to talk to him now. No offence but if it was you, I would probably change my name and move you another country."

"How is that not- why is that?" Tony switched his question in the middle, walking over to the armchair and sitting down. He motioned for her to sit as well.

Scarlet was surprised the man hadn't kicked her out of the place yet. She thought he would be fuming but he seem a bit more than relaxed at the moment. It was strangely surprising.

"Personal reason's."

"Well why would I help you then?"

"You should help me cause you owe me." Scarlet said and she had to admit she was a little amused when Tony raised his eyebrows at her accusation. She opened the file and pulled out a small card with writing scribbled on the back.

She hoped that the man wouldn't laugh in her face and tell her that it was a fake. But if it was a fake then she would have no idea why her mom would still have that. Her mother was usually very serious and she thought that there was no reason to keep anything you didn't need. She was like the last person you would ever see hoarding anything. Scarlet even found it funny at time when her mother found something that wasn't there for a reason. She would often go on a rant about it and then roll her eyes at Scarlet while she laughed.

It was a birthday invite that had the message _IOU _ scribbled on the back of it and Tony's signature scrawled under it. She passed it over to Tony and while he was looking at it she explained.

"Well it's more like you owe my mom but it's family ties really. She used to work for you when you first started running the company. That was your 22nd birthday invite." She was just guessing on the employee part but she knew that the invite was true. Tony was frowning at the card and then handed it back to her.

"What did she do for me?" He asked and Scarlet didn't answer for a few seconds. He didn't say anything about the signature and she didn't know if that was a good thing or not. She didn't want to flat out lie to him though, because she found that in situations like these she could keep a secret for anything so she was merely trying to stretch the truth.

"My mother never told me what she did but she always kept that safe in case we ever needed to call in that favor and I think that now is as good a time as any." It was mostly true though it was based off a lie. She couldn't tell what Tony was thinking at the moment and she refused to believe that he was buying any of her story, she probably wouldn't even buy her story..

Tony took a deep breath and leaned forward resting his elbows on his knees.

"Kid, I know there is something your not telling me cause this story seems a little out there, but I don't know how you got that card. So, tell you what, I'll help you, but you gotta be straight with me. Now, why do you want to find your dad?" Scarlet took in a deep breath and then let it out.

She was surprised by his offer to help her but then again wasn't that what she was hoping for?

"My mom is missing." Scarlet said slowly. Trying to find a way to explain. Tony's eyebrows shot up in surprise and she continued. "I have filed anything yet but she is in the Navy and we were video chatting when there was an explosion somewhere on board and the video cut out. I'm not sure if she is alive or not but she was on her way back home. I thought that if she was gone then I might as well try to find my dad so he knew." Tony's eyes were still wide and Scarlet felt bad about lying again but she couldn't exactly say that her mom was super paranoid and told her to get the hell away from Arizona and SHIELD if anything ever happened to her.

"Well that would be a viable reason for trying to find your dad." Tony said after a moment and he cleared his throat. He was about to continue when Jarvis interrupted.

"Sir, the Avengers have just been released and are on their way." Tony looked to the elevator in surprise and gestured for Scarlet to stand.

"Follow me." Tony said standing and walking over to a pair of metal doors to the left of the elevator. Scarlet followed behind him, grabbing her backpack on the way and the metal doors opened automatically. When they were in the doors closed behind them and Tony faced her.

"I'm going to help you but here are a few things I need you to do." He frowned at the backpack. "When did you get that?"

Scarlet frowned. "You really don't notice much do you?"

"You know what never mind, I need you to stay hidden from the Avengers until I can introduce you to them without them going haywire, okay? In order to find your dad I'm going to do a search on you mom's name. It could be that your father was named but not put down on any of your records, it happens many times with divorces and stuff like that. Were your parents married?"

"I don't know my mom never spoke of him much."

"What? Your grandma never talk smack about your father or anything? Not even an Uncle."

"It's only be me and my mom for as long as I can remember." Scarlet said and Tony's face became, soft? That couldn't be right? Was that pity? Why would Stark of all people feel like that? "Anyways," Scarlet said, to move on. "When do you wanna start?"

Tony opened his mouth to respond but jumped when there was a banging on the door's.

"Stark, get out here!" Scarlet heard a feminine voice call out through the door.

"Jesus, I wish they would stop doing that." Tony mumbled under his breath. He looked back at Scarlet. "Jarvis will warn you if someone other than me, is coming in here. If that ever happened you go over to that tool closet and hide, okay?" Scarlet nodded. "Don't go in or out of this room without my permission. We will start the search for you father when I get back in here. But just keep quiet and don't touch anything." Tony gestured to the entire room and walked over to the door's "One last thing whenever these doors open, duck."

Scarlet frowned but at that moment the doors began to open and she hit the floor in a matter of seconds. She could hear Tony chuckling and she was biting back insults on her tongue. Seconds later the doors closed and Scarlet was left on her own. She stood up and looked around her.

The lab was mainly white and seemed to be a science lab merged with shop class. There were telescopes everywhere but also small micro welder and wrenches the size of her head. Grinders and hammer drills, demo machinery and precision tools. Beakers and autoclaves, burners, clamps, electrolysis, hot plates, stirrers, incubators ovens. There were so many things that she didn't even know the name to and she felt a smile slowly come to her face.

If only her school back home was stocked with stuff like this. She would be able to do so many things! She could just feel the giddiness in her stomach and wanted to mess with everything, just because she had never seen so much of it before. but she knew what Tony had said and she felt frustrated because she wasn't allowed to touch anything.

But that wasn't why she was here. She looked over at the doors where Tony had disappeared. She wasn't sure why he said yes in fact it was quite random that he agreed, but no matter what she was grateful. Hopefully she would be able to get results soon and she would be off. Cause she wasn't even close to being done.

OoO

Hey guys! Another one bites the dust haha! I feel as if I am on what one would call a roll. But I think that I am going to try and update regularly on Saturdays. Then you guys know when I will be putting up another chapter. So this one will be the last one until next Saturday so I hope you guys can wait that long

But I am now working on more chapters its just that I want to get ahead with it and then post them one by one. Anyways I hope you guys like the chapter and enjoy! Please Review! Love to all! :D


	9. Chapter 9

Tony walked out of the lab leaving Scarlet behind him. The smile that was on his face was instantly gone when he saw his team standing like a blockade in front of him. Bruce seemed to be looking around at everyone trying to figure out what was going to happen, Steve looked majorly pissed, Natasha looked like she just got a 500 piece jigsaw puzzle, Thor was watching Tony with a concerned face and Hawkeye surprisingly was the only one he couldn't read.

"Why do I feel like you guys are planning on having an intervention?" Tony said walking past them. He was concerned as to why they were looking at him like that but he was more concerned about finally getting that coffee he wanted.

Steve followed behind him to the kitchen.

"Tony, take off your shirt."

"Woah, Cap. You know I usually wait until the third date." Tony said pouring himself a cup of coffee and raising an eyebrow.

"Cut the crap, Stark. Show it to us."

"Show what?" Tony said taking a sip out of his cup. _Ahhh, life fuel_. Tony thought.

"The reactor." Bruce said calmly. His voice had a large difference from the demanding tone Steve was using. It was almost as if he was trying to cut off the twos bickering before it started.

Tony looked between everyone on the team. How would they know about that. He never told them or ever left it in his files, he had always made sure to cover it but-.

Then he remembered Fury having him leave early. _The little snitch_. Tony thought, his inner diva showing through. _Of course he would tell them_.

"I haven't the faintest clue what you are talking about." Tony said walking around the side of the counter. "I'm guessing Fury told you this? I'm sorry but his information was never really spot on, something about data being lost all the time."

"Yes he told us about that little bug in the system, but he put the information on a private sector. Tony you are going to show us it and then tell us what really happened with the Ten Rings." Natasha was calm and collected but Tony could tell she was a bit irritated that she didn't have all the information she could have had when she was assigned to him.

Tony glared at her.

"It doesn't concern you." Tony said. "It doesn't concern any of you. I told you what you needed to know at there is no reason to delve any deeper." His voice was stern but somehow he still managed to look casual while drinking his coffee.

"Tony." Steve said and he stared Tony down. "I do not care about that at the moment. I think I speak for all of us when I say we don't appreciate being lied to." Tony looked at each person in front of him. They all seemed to agree with what Rogers said. Tony sighed and set down the coffee. "Show us, Tony." Steve said.

Tony reached up and loosened his tie while unbuttoning the first few buttons. His tie and thick shirt had blocked the light of the reactor but when the tie was moved they could see the glow of it, but just barely. Bruce took a step forward when he saw the top of the reactor. When Tony pulled back the shirt to show them he could hear Clint suck in a breath.

The reactor was bright blue and had a triangle plate over it that was made of Starkanium. Bruce came up to Tony to inspect it more and when he touched the reactor everyone noticed the small flinch Tony gave. The device stuck out of his chest a few centimeters and the skin around it was slightly red.

"It's a miniature arc reactor. I used to have a big one back in California but it was destroyed shortly after I came back from Afghanistan. When they attacked the convoy bits of shrapnel entered my chest. They had a local doctor put a electromagnetic in my chest in order to keep the shrapnel from entering my heart. Thing was that my life line was hooked up to a car battery and I only had a week, so I shrunk the arch reactor down to size and voila, here I am today."

His voice was flat, like he was listing of facts from a progress report and it concerned most of the team. Tony was usually sarcastic and made a joke almost every time he spoke. There was a playful tone in everything he said, but that tone had just disappeared. It was more alarming than seeing the actual reactor.

Tony buttoned the shirt back up uncomfortable with everyone looking at it. Steve was staring at him in a way that Tony couldn't explain and he was more than uncomfortable with that. He couldn't suspect the Captain of having any kind of sentiment towards what happened to him and he honestly wasn't expecting it from him or anyone on the team other than Bruce.

"Does it," Steve started and he cleared his throat. "Hurt?" He guessed at the right word as if saying the wrong thing would set Tony off. Tony himself couldn't help but be amused by his attitude towards the subject but he was also annoyed that they were discussing the matter. He was not one to admit any of his faults or weaknesses. It wasn't the way he was raised.

Howard had taught him that enough times. Stark's do not apologize. Stark's do not admit fault. Stark's do not give in. Stark's drink away their problems. Stark's find solutions to problems that don't exist. Stark's don't give a damn about anyone but themselves.

Luckily Tony had broken out of a few of those habits before he was royally screwed but there were still some that remained there. They refused to move just like his stupidly stubborn father.

"Not as much anymore. Though I do have few pieces of ribs missing and a generously smaller lung capacity." Tony sighed, picked up his mug and took a sip of his coffee. The caffeine that usually gave him so much energy wasn't really cutting it for him at the moment, he felt a sudden urge for a glass of alcohol, one of his many problem that he refused to acknowledge. "I don't like to advertise it. Its not as intimidating knowing that your opponent has a pacemaker." He winced as he put the cup back down. "No. Not good at all."

Bruce's eyes couldn't get any wider and tony's fight or flight instincts couldn't get any higher. Tony understood that this was a surprise to most of them and he was actually surprised that the spies hadn't figured it out earlier. When Natasha gave Tony the injection when the palladium was infecting him, he was sure she had known. When he asked her later she had said that fury told her that she didn't need to know what it was for. Tony was rather angry that she was so willing to inject him with something and she had no idea what it was, or was it concerned?

"How much space does that take up in your chest?" Bruce asked, he was slipping into his doctor mode. Tony was just waiting for the man to take out his stethoscope. Though it would be amusing he hoped that he wouldn't, this conversation was already unbearable as it was.

"It has an area of about 47.12, but that doesn't really matter. I have been living with it or a while and it doesn't really bother me anymore. It does have enough energy to power my heart for about 80 thousand lifetimes, the original was only around 50 thousand but the suit does take a bit of power out of the reactor so I guess it would go back to about 40 thousand lifetimes." Tony kept rambling on about it. He stopped every once and awhile trying to explain his math a little more but once he saw the looks his team were giving each other he stopped.

They were looking at each other like they could hold a conversation with their eyes. Their eyes were being very obvious.

Cap was deep in thought and Tony was pretty sure the man was having an internal debate about if he should ask about his stay in the afghanistan desert. Tony was hoping his mind would lose that debate. Clint and Natasha were both staring at each other and little twitches in their faces told Tony that they were debating the pros and cons of the situation. Unfortunately the lesser was winning.

Bruce was listing all of the health issues that could come with him having a giant hole in his chest. Obviously the list was growing in the paranoid doctors head. Thor on the other hand was looking rather ecstatic. Tony couldn't tell what the man was thinking half the time so he wasn't even going to guess. He was probably thinking of asking Tony to make a toaster with an arch reactor in it so he could get his pop tarts faster.

"Why don't you have the shrapnel removed now and get rid of the reactor?" It was Clint who asked this. He and Natasha were done with their silent debate and it seemed as if whatever Clint was arguing, it had pissed of Natasha, seeing as she was staring at the ground with a frown.

"I already tried that. The problem is though getting rid of the reactor would leave a giant hole in my chest with nothing to fill it and I would die of infections within a month." Tony went to take another sip of his coffee and found the glass empty so he went over to the sink to wash the cup. "It was something that Pepper and I had agreed on but when the doctors couldn't come up with a solution to the problem we dropped it."

"But why wouldn't you try to find a solution to the problem? After all you are a genius." Clint argued. Tony's hand tightened on the cup as he washed and he paused for a second. It was small but they all noticed his hesitance.

_Because, it would bring back too many memories_, Tony's mind reasoned but he wouldn't tell them that. He continued to wash out the cup and put it on a drying rack.

"Well yes I am a genius, in mechanical engineering, science, math, english, just about everything but health. I know some things but not a lot. I would rather leave it to them than have me mucking around with some half baked idea." Tony dried his hands on a towel and turned back towards the team. "Now if that is all I am going to go back to my lab and start up a new project, I have a feeling this one will be quite interesting."

Tony smiled at his own foreshadowing as he could tell this was going to get interesting but before he could get to the lab door Rogers called out.

"What happened in Afghanistan?" He asked and Tony stopped and gave no physical reaction even though his mind was going crazy. Each mention of that _place _would make his heart speed up even a little bit. It would make him think of everything that happened there. It made him wish that he was luck enough to wipe the experience from his own brain. If he was only so lucky. Unfortunately his mind, as smart as it was, refused to forget a single piece of information since he was old enough to remember.

Why couldn't they just leave it alone? He had made it obvious in the first place that he didn't want to discus it with anyone when he never told anyone about it. No one knew except Pepper and Rhodey for the longest time. Then fury found out and his life went to hell in a handbasket.

Tony internally debated his chances of getting away clean and found that it was worth a shot. He waved a hand over his head and continued to the door.

"That's a story for a different night Stevie boy." The lab door slipped open and closed behind his quickly. He could hear Cap calling his name behind him but he ignored him.

He wasn't going to tell anyone about a second of those three months. There was no reason for him to. Once it became needed information he might tell them about who Yensin was but that was about as much as he would ever tell.

His fears were getting very strong now and he was trying to avoid them as much as possible, which only made his fear grow. There were many times he thought of telling someone just because it might help him with his nightmares and stress but he quickly dismissed the thought because the only ones he could tell would be judging him the entire time and they would try to help him and make a huge deal out of everything.

That was not what Tony needed, he just needed for someone to listen. But he had no one he could talk to about it, it was the sad truth. It was also against his morals that were drilled into his head to even talk about the stuff so he was screwed over no matter what.

There was no one he would ever tell the full story to.

OoO

hey guys! I got the update on Saturday! Yay! I don't know if I will be able to get another post up next weekend though cause my computer just had a major freak out and it is now being shipped off to God knows where to get fixed and sent back home soon! but until then I only have a tablet and a desktop at my dads house to sustain me. Sadly I don't have access to these 24/7 so I might miss next week. If I do I would like to say Merry Thanksgiving and Happy Christmas! (Yes I meant to do that).

Love you all! Thanks for reading, hope you liked it!

Plez Review!


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Scarlet was picking at a loose thread on her backpack. She had been waiting for Tony to return from wherever he was called off to. She had heeded Tony's warning and refrained from touching anything in the shop.

Mostly because she was sure that she would break something, seeing as she didn't know how to use most of the stuff in only time she was around equipment like this was at school and even then the machines were rudimentary at best.

A sudden wave of melancholy washed over her as she reminisced her time at school. It wasn't her favorite place to be but she did have good memories.

She was a little below average in her classes. It wasn't because she wasn't smart, no she was great in that area but she could never focus. She blamed that on her ADHD. She had been put in SPED and given Concerta to help her but it only helped her a bit.

Her least favorite was history though. It was as if the moment the teacher started to open their mouth, she would tune out. She would try so hard and everything seemed so interesting but her focus would always be attracted out the window where she could see the Elementry across the street. She would watch the kids play around while her teacher talked about the original printing press.

That plus P.E. made her hate school. But now she was beginning to wonder if she might ever be able to go back to her regular life again. She had no doubt that her mother had been trying to protect her from something. Why else would her mother tell Scarlet to run if anything ever happened to her. However, Scarlet couldn't help but wonder what life would be like if she hadn't ran away.

Would she still be helping Marcus with the cars in his shop? Would she be struggling to stay awake while studying for her history semester finals? Would she be starting up her final year of softball before she would quit and move over for the real talent? Would her mom still be okay? Is her mom still okay?

There were so many different questions in her mind and she hated that she couldn't answer her own questions. Her mind began to sweep her off her own feet as she continued to pick at the loose string. Soon she was caught in her own memories.

_The lights in the house were off. The harsh yellow street lights were the only light source as Scarlet stared at the entrance to her home. She was picking at the buttons on her coat. She was shivering in the cold of Arizona nights, as she should be seeing as she was dressed for the warm weather of the day with her sandals and sundress. Her friend, Beverly, had lent it to her for her walk home._

_The two of them had walked to her house after school. Bev needed help with her school work and Scarlet usually would help her with it after school. This day, however, they had dropped the studies and settled for watching Disney movies. Scarlet had fallen asleep when Jasmine had stepped onto the magic carpet and Bev was soon to follow._

_The two woke up later when Bev's mother had returned to work and by then it was dark out. Scarlet had declined an offer to be driven home seeing as she only lived a few blocks away. It was only when she got to her street that she realized that she had forgotten to tell her mother where she was all day. This of course was when her mother had a steady job and she didn't need to join the force._

_Her mother was a worry wart. She was concerned over even the small thing so seeing as she had never told her mother where she was sure that her mother was freaking out. However on the other hand her mother knew that she often went over to Bev's house after school. Her mother might have assumed that she had just been over there for a while now and was sleeping._

_She wasn't sure if her mother would still be awake at this time or is she had gone to bed but something told Scarlet that her mother wasn't sleeping just yet._

_Finally she got up her courage to go inside her house._

_When she opened the door it squeaked on it hinges and Scarlet winced as it did the same as she closed the door. She had only been able to kick off one shoe before the light in the kitchen flipped on. There her mother was, leaning against the counter a coffee mug in her hand. Her hair was tied up in a messy bun and she was still in her mechanic jumpsuit from work. Dark circles were under her mother's eyes and her feet were in her worn out work boots._

"_Beverly's mother called when you left their house." Her mother said taking a sip out of her cup and then setting it on the counter. "Next time you need to call. Go to your room, you're grounded." Scarlet kicked off her other shoe and took a step forward._

"_Wait that's not fair I was helping Bev with her homework and we fell asleep!" Her mother glared and took a step forward._

"_Bev's mother told me you two were watching Disney movies. Its worrying when I don't know where you are. I need a call from you or something and I don't tolerate lying. You're going to go to your room and you can't go over to Beverly's house anymore. If she needs help with homework she can come over here."_

"_That's hardly fair." _

"_I'm not arguing with you over this."_

"_No, you are. Why are you always so over protective with me? You don't let me go out! You refuse to give me a reason. You act like there's something out there to get me." Jane rolls her eyes at her daughter._

"_Stop this now, Scarlet. You're acting like a spoiled brat."_

"_No. Not until you tell me why." Scarlet had stopped yelling and was looking at her mother. Something in her eyes tugged at Jane she couldn't take the look she was giving her._

_It was the same one that Scarlet had when she was little. It was the look she gave when she was asking why the sky was blue or how many stars were in the sky. It was the look that could melt anyones heart. So with a sigh Jane walked to the other side of the kitchen and leaned on the counter._

"_Scarlet, I love you so much. You know that. I just can't-" Jane cleared her throat and paused. "I can't let you get hurt and I'm sorry but I act the way I do out of love. But I can't tell you not because I don't want to but because I can't. I want to keep you safe." Scarlet didn't say anything for the longest time. She just stared at her mother, deflated by her mother's words._

"_Well," Scarlet hiked her bag up on her back. "You're doing a great job at that." She walked to her room and shut her door softly. To Jane it seemed to have more force than if she slammed it._

She was dragged out of her thoughts when the AI's voice spoke up.

"Sir is approaching the doors to the lab. I recommend that you take the necessary precautions and hide." Jarvis said. The tone was relaxed, yet it gave an air of emergency .

Scarlet squatted down behind a workbench and waited until she heard the doors slide open.

She was glad that Tony didn't want the Avengers knowing that he was helping her but she was concerned that he was trying to find a way to tell them as well. Seeing as she had been wanting to avoid the Avengers, that would be the last thing she wanted.

She was startled to hear a loud male voice yelling at Tony to come back. The man in question merely laughed, ignoring the other man's voice. She heard the doors open and close but she didn't make a move to get up until she heard Tony clear his throat.

When he did she looked up over the tabletop and studied him. Her observation about his energy had been on the spot. He looked as if he had been hit by a bus and then dragged back through again. His shoulders were slumped as if the weight of his body alone was exhausting. His eyes were unfocused, like his mind was somewhere else. His tie was undone, hanging loosely around his neck and she could see a glowing spot in the middle of his shirt. The glow was a bright blue that made Scarlet thing that it could have been a flashlight hidden under his shirt.

_That must be that weird thing that he got in Afghanistan. _Scarlet thought. There wasn't a lot of media coverage on the metal in his chest. There were many theories and such as to why it was in his chest but there aren't any popular theories for it. Most people didn't even know it existed.

She was curious as to what it could be for but decided against asking anything about it. She was sure if the man wanted her to know then he would tell her, but she really doubted that he would ever tell something so personal to a stranger.

Slowly she stood and waited for the man to say something. The awkwardness was suffocating, if the two of them never spoke the entire time they were _working_, Scarlet would find herself going mad. She hated silence, it made her edgy. It made her inner ADHD come out and she would find herself trying to fidget with the nearest thing.

She was like her mother in that respect.

There was always some kind of noise at home, whether it be the dishwasher or the old record player in the living room. Silence was restless, that's what her mother had said, it lulled you into a false sense of security. Scarlet didn't share quite the same views on it as her mother but they both agreed to hate it. It was things like that that made her wonder what her mother went through to think that.

As she was watching Tony through the silence, however, she noticed the quiet was seeming to calm him. His shoulders, which were tense when he first walked in, were slowly relaxing as time continued. His body, though completely drained, was enjoying the solitude.

Though he might be relaxing himself, Scarlet was getting annoyed. They needed to get moving. She couldn't stay here long. Hopefully Tony could get results within the day. She wasn't imagining that it would take any longer than that.

It couldn't take any longer than that. Lord knows all she risked to get here.

"Shall we get started ?" Scarlet asked and it seemed to drag Tony out of whatever his mind was distracting him with. He looked at Scarlet for a moment before nodding.

OoO

Sorry for the late update guys! God this took me forever to write. I was hoping to catch up on my writing while visiting my grandparents in Arizona but that backfired major time. Like I had to go shuffle boarding. Freaking 15 to 75 thanks for that Grandma. I think I'm going to be behind for a while. I'm not putting the story on hold but I am just giving you a fair warning.

I can't tell you how bad I feel for being this late but I was trying to work on the back story of some of these characters more and make them more believable but that took me a really long time. I got most of it sorted out but if you have any questions feel free to ask them. hope you guys liked it and I am looking forward to writing the next chapter of this story.

Please Follow and Review! Love you all! TTYL!


	11. Chapter 11

Tony watched the strings of code speed across the screen as he began his search. The girl had been watching the screen next to him as he worked. Tony could tell that this girl, Scarlet, had left some things out in her explanation. In fact, he could tell that it was mostly fabricated by the way the girl's eye twitched and she avoided looking him in the eye, a habit Tony himself had. But he would ask her about that later. The name was familiar, though. Too familiar to discard.

He had told Jarvis to start running the name Jane Miller through his employee records, searching as far back as he could. It was taking a lot longer than he thought because the sweep included all the employees from the white collar business suits to the blue collar workers in the warehouses. He was also having Jarvis search through his past acquaintances as well. Jane Miller might have never worked for him in the first place.

The IOU the girl had shown him was familiar as well. It was a faint memory, one he could only remember because he had been thinking hard about it after the girl had shown it to him.

It was a drunken blur, he was annoyed, someone was talking to him, he reached for the nearest piece of paper and scribbled on it with a blotchy sharpie, he had handed it to the person. All he could remember about their description was something yellow. A flower maybe?

Helping this girl was stupid and risky, he knew that. This could be a trap. But it was also a time waster. Something he sorely needed. It would get his mind off all those God awful memories. He needed to distract himself from the Ten Rings flag on the Navy vessel and the memories of Afghanistan. He needed to be distracted from the commotion of the rebuilding from the small war that broke out in the middle of Manhattan. He needed to forget that the person he trusted and cared for the most was vulnerable when he wasn't with her. He needed to forget about the piles of work that were set on top of him by his own greedy board, most of which Obie had taken care of before...

He had had to work on a puzzle. Something that had one definite answer and he could be sure that he had the right answer. Something that would take a lot of brainpower to figure out.

Finding a long lost dad could present a challenge, right? It couldn't be that easy.

That's why, when the code finally broke and he had the answer for her within ten minutes of starting, he felt crushed. However, while he concluded that the time waster wasn't nearly as occupying as he assumed, Scarlet seemed to be more than overjoyed that she already had her answer. No, the closer Tony looked at her the more he realized that it wasn't happiness. It was more of an anxious determination than anything. Her left eyebrow twitched in concentration as she read the information.

The screen in front of them had pulled up an original birth certificate of hers that had her mother's full name listed. Right under it was the name of her father, Joshua Ford. Without being asked, Jarvis brought up the man's bio in an instant.

Small blue holograms appeared all around them with multiple listings of information on each. Born and raised in New York, never moved out of state and works as a banker. There was more information than that but that's all Tony had noticed before turning to Scarlet. Where he graduated, his job record, his hobbies, more information than Tony cared to pick through. But then something caught his eye. A small blue hologram with directions to his home in Albany, a full two hours away.

That's when his next bright idea had struck him.

He didn't know how this girl planned on traveling that far all on her own because he saw by her birth certificate she was barely fifteen, another lie, meaning she didn't have a driver's licence. Because of this revelation, Tony came up with a way to extend this investigation or distraction, if you must.

"Well, it says here that one Joshua Ford is your father and he lives two hours away in Albany. How do you plan on getting there?" Tony asked, leaning back in his chair casually, looking back at her.

She didn't take her eyes off the bio that was in front of her as she slowly skimmed through it. She seemed to be trying to absorb as much information as she could before looking away. Tony was about to restate his question when she answered. Even as she looked at him her eyes lingered on the screen.

"I can just take a bus or a train up there. It's not like I can't get there without a car." She said before stepping back from the screen, apparently having taken in all she could.

Tony scoffed.

"Yeah, right." Scarlet gave him an incredulous look. "Don't look at me like that, -Pants. You are an underage fifteen-year-old, who should be in school right now, if not reporting her missing mother to the police. Really, I should bring you down there myself." At this, her eyes grew wide. Tony would have laughed if he wasn't trying to play his cards at the moment, it was almost comical.

"Why haven't you brought this to the authorities yet?" Tony suddenly asked, becoming curious. "Any other person would have informed some kind of authoritative figure about what you saw. Any teenager would have definitely. Then again in a moment of panic, I think that it could have slipped someone's mind for maybe a half hour, tops. But you said that you lived somewhere in Manhattan, correct?" Tony continued talking before Scarlet had time to respond. His mind was rolling, putting the pieces together out loud. Something he did often while tinkering.

"This a strictly business area and the nearest housing community is around a mile away. If you walked there it would have taken you a while considering its rush hour and pedestrians are slowed by the traffic. If you took a cab it would have taken two times longer with it being rush hour as I have already said. Surely that is enough time for you to realize that your efforts could be otherwise directed towards the police." Tony was just breaking out into a monologue when Scarlet interrupted him.

" ." These angry words were enough to shut Tony up. Her previous panicked expression was now gone, replaced by an irritated look that he had only seen Natasha use. Clint had often referred to the look as a 'dead eye' which, to Tony, was deemed appropriate at the moment. Had this girl naturally acquired a look that could freeze fire, or was it something she obtained by receiving the same look often?

"I have already told you why I am here, to find my father. I am going to say this only once, I do not want, nor do I need, the police involved in this. They wouldn't be able to help me anyways. I am here to find my father, not to figure out what happened to my mother. I am concerned about her, yes, but I am focused on one thing right now. This is the first step to finding out what is going on because at the moment I know just about as much as you. Your questions are going to have to remain unanswered I'm afraid." Tony raised his eyebrows at her and she merely picked up her bag from the floor and placed the straps on her shoulders.

"Thank you for helping me. I'm sorry if what I said was rude but it's the truth. I can handle it from here, though. I'm sure that I'll be able to make it to Albany on my own. I'm also sure that we won't be seeing each other again. So on that note, goodbye Mr. Stark. Thank you again." With that, Scarlet started walking towards the lab doors to go out to the common area.

Right to where the Avengers were waiting.

Tony began to panic as she strode closer to the door. He jumped up from his stool, it slid back a few feet from the force.

"Wait, you can't go out there just yet." Scarlet stopped and turned to Tony with a raised eyebrow as if to ask, _why not_? "The team is still out there and I don't think you would like to meet them just yet. They are a bit more," He paused searching for the right words. "Let's say, cautious around other people, at least more than me. They wouldn't react well to you being here."

That seemed to convince Scarlet to back away from the door. Though she looked a bit scared, more so because Tony had mentioned the Avengers in the first place. He was confused. Weren't the Avengers supposed to make most people go crazy like fangirls or boys or whatever they call them? Wasn't the name supposed to ensure safety or something sappy like that?

Why was her reaction so negative?

Tony thought better than to ask about it just yet and see if he could poke around the subject later to get an answer out of her. For now, he had to secure a distraction for himself. So he moved on, forgetting her reaction and sitting back down on his stool. Then he saw a red hologram floating right next to Scarlet's head, flashing as if to silently alert Tony to what it said.

AMBER Alert.

He got it.

Thank you, Jarvis.

"Besides, even though you seem very confident about it, I will be taking you to Albany myself." When he saw she was about to protest he raised a hand to stop her. "I'm hardly about to let an underage teenager, without any parental guidance, travel all the way to Albany alone."

"What do you mean let?" Scarlet was annoyed, that much was obvious. But there was something hidden under it that raised Tony's interest. Was that, relief? "Last I checked I don't think you have any say in what I can and can't do," Scarlet said crossing her arms in front of her stomach.

"Yeah, well last I checked, kids don't travel all the way from Arizona alone and they usually don't do that with an AMBER alert on their profile," Tony said pointing to a screen to the left of him floating just above the recently finished suit.

"I've made it this far." Scarlet said not looking at the hologram.

"And you wouldn't be going any farther without my help so ha. You owe me now and I say you can repay me by letting me bring you there." Tony said matter of factly. Scarlet gave him a sceptical look.

"Why do you want to go so bad?" Tony shrugged.

"I love the touchy feely sappy stuff like reunions."

"Really?" Scarlet looked taken aback.

"No." He took a breath and stood up from his stool. "Look the way I see it is that you either let me take you there or you get shipped off to the nearest police station."

Scarlet glared at Tony, mulling over her options. Obviously, she didn't find any others because she gave out a heavy sigh while dropping her arms to her sides and throwing her head back. The action was so childish that Tony couldn't help but chuckle at her.

"Quit your pouting, it'll be fun." Tony said and Scarlet scowled at him.

"I'm not pouting."

"Sure you aren't. Do we have a deal?" Scarlet paused for a moment as if steeling herself before answering.

"Yeah, we do." Tony grinned at her.

"Great. Now first things first. What on earth is that giant stack of papers in your bag?" Tony asked while pointing a finger at said object. When Scarlet had slung the bag on the top flap to the bag flipped open and the folder was in plain view. Scarlet must have realized this as she took the folder out and fixed the flap.

"Just some research." She said placing the folder on the table next to her. Tony walked over and examined the folder before giving Scarlet an amused look.

"Only some?" He shook his head and opened the folder, his breath catching on the first thing he saw.

It was an old article from 2005 about him. More specifically his disappearance after the weapons demo in Afghanistan. It commented on the possibilities of under the table dealings of SI and if they might be linked to his kidnapping.

Tony turned to the next page.

A more recent entry in the New York Times about the mysterious team named the Avengers, that saved the world. It commented on the damage done to the city and had a long list of details about the appearance of the Chitauri. It also suggested different theories on how they arrived.

Tony kept flipping through more and more of them. Some of them linked to the Avengers but most of it focused on him and his behavior throughout the years. As Tony found more and more on him in the folder, he grew more and more concerned. His hands were shaking slightly but not noticeably or, at least, he hoped. Slowly he put down the papers and turned to Scarlet who was watching him with a curious look on her face.

"Why do you…?" Tony didn't finish his sentence. He didn't want to. He was feeling overwhelmed both by the fact that she had deliberately collected all this information on him and of the memories that they brought back.

Scarlet pulled the folder closer to her and started looking through the information as well, mostly the stuff that Tony had already seen.

"I wanted to find out more about you before I tried to find you and get you to help me. It seemed like a smart move. Another part of it was that you move around a lot and it's hard to know where you are going to be and when but if you watch out on a couple different sights then it's easy to find you." Tony raised his head in understanding but his mind was still trying to process everything.

How could it be so easy to find him? That wasn't safe at all. Not for him. Not for the team.

Not for Pepper.

"But after I started looking through here I started noticing that a lot of people try to pick your actions apart. Like after passing a cornerstone you'll change something in the way you act and then they will pick it apart and come up with a million different theories. I must say that some of them are hysterical but some of them are also a little bit haunting as well." Scarlet rambled, uncomfortable with the silence between them.

This raised Tony's attention. People picking at his personality and how he acted? He knew that some people had accused him of PTSD and other mental illnesses before but to go ass far and try to discern the way he acted and why?

"Give me your best example." He said gesturing to the folder. Scarlet nodded and shuffled through some of the papers pulling out two stapled articles.

"This first one is one of the ones that aren't taken into consideration for the people that do this and is laughable but the second one has got a lot of backing to it. Most other articles reference to this one. I just gathered everything I could in case I needed more information to find you or something."

Tony skimmed through the first one. It was terrible. It involved any and every kind of conspiracy theory you could think of. It went way past the limits of crazy, it was just downright offensive. However, the second one was the complete opposite.

There were mentions of a maybe betrayal of someone close to him had lead to his then closed off behavior and after a brief sulking period, he would return to his old ways but with less finesse because of the lingering memory of what happens when people get too close. It had all the facts it needed to be a strong theory and it was almost spot on. However, it was missing a whole other side to the story.

This sparked Tony's curiosity about what else was out there on him. However, it also sparked fear in his as well. If he could prevent people from figuring out more about him then that was good. He didn't need anyone to pry into his life and try to _fix _him. He wanted to put a stop to this. For the safety of himself and those around him.

"Do you mind if I borrow these for a while?" Tony asked gesturing to the pile of papers. Scarlet shook her head at him and Tony nodded, placing the papers back with the others.

He needed to put an end to all this floating information on him. He couldn't risk the repercussions of not being prepared.


	12. AN Working on it

Hey, guys!

Sorry about the absolutely horrid wait for an update. I feel like I do this too often but I am updating my story again. I thought the last updates were good but then I went over the story again and realized the story was getting really stretched out and I needed to fix that immediatly. If I don't the story is only going to go downhill and I don't want that to happen. I should have updated chapters up in 2 weeks and then I will continue with updates. I am not going to hold myself to a schedule at this time because I have recently started my freshman year at college and I am swamped with work right now. However, my semester ends in 3 weeks and I have clear skies after that. tHank you for being so patient.

So here's to a better story!

-Insiga


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